At the Beginning
by Rexa13
Summary: Rain was a Keymaster and Hailyn was his little sister. After Rain loses his heart Hailyn is crushed. When Sora comes to Traverse Town Hailyn finds he is the new Keymaster and she joins him on his journey to make sure he is worthy of his key. SoraOC HIATUS
1. Prologue

Rexa13: Ok so new story. I've never finished one for Kingdom Hearts so by the time this is up I'll have the whole fanfiction complete, then I can update weekly or every few days easily.  
Disclaimer: I only own Hailyn

--

Traverse Town wasn't always an accomplished place. In fact it had only been a well-developed town with things like neon light, a cafe shop, and a hotel for four years. Before that the city was crap. Sure it had three districts and an alley, but it looked pretty run down.  
I've had the problem of living in the town for ten years of my life. When I was four my world was swallowed by the darkness. My fifteen-year-old brother and I were the only survivors. I only survived because of him.  
When we woke up in Traverse Town it was in the second district. Right over me was a small dark bug like creature. There had been many of these in our world when it was destroyed.  
"Rain," I said as I started crying.  
The next thing I knew my brother had hit the creature with a block of wood. It was back on it's feet in a matter of seconds. My brother continued to beat the creature until it disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.  
"Hail take my hand," Rain had said to me grabbing my hand before I even comprehended what was happening.  
My brother ran causing me to be half dragged as I tried to run with him. As we ran more creatures appeared. Rain hit each one out of the way with his block of wood.  
Rain dragged me up some stairs, which I clumsily tripped on. Rain stopped and pulled me onto his back.  
"I'm scared brother," I said clinging on to my brother and crying on his shoulder.  
"Hailyn listen to me, we're going to be fine," my brother said soothingly.  
I looked at his face. To my surprise my brother was smiling. It was like he was enjoying a game or something. It cheered me up though; I was able to get some confidence.  
Then a weird thing that looked like a knight or soldier appeared. My brother's hand lit up and instead of a piece of wood there was a giant silver and gold key.  
"Keyblade," my brother whispered.  
As I wondered about the key my brother attacked the soldier. With just a few simple hits with the key the creature was gone and a little heart flew into the air.  
"See Hail I told you we'd be fine," Rain said as he ran still holding me on his back.

At first we stayed in the item shop before it even looked like a shop. That was the only place safe from the heartless at the time. After a while the heartless didn't enter the first district at all.  
There were other people who inhabited Traverse Town. They didn't really care for the fact that two kids were joining their town. But once they saw what Rain was able to do with his key they were fine with it.  
Rain locked the third district from the first. That was five years later. Then we moved into the small house in the third district. Everyone was moving away from the item shop, now that it was becoming an actual shop.  
One day when I was twelve Rain took me to the first district where I could be with our new friends Yuffie, Leon (or Squall), Aerith, and CId. Rain had been acting different. He was always going off into other districts and leaving me behind.  
I noticed there was something wrong, but my brother had reassured me that everything was fine. So I stayed and played with my friends. I also worked on making the city what it is.  
That day my brother never came back. I stayed with my friends for two days. Then they decided to look for Rain. I begged to go but they told me to stay in the first district.  
After the others left and I was alone with Cid I tricked him into letting me go out on a walk around the first district. While I was out I went and bought a staff from the item shop. It took all of my munny and I was saving up for it anyways.  
It was a blue and silver diagonal striped staff with a silvery blue crescent moon at the top. I had been admiring the staff since it came into the shop. I wanted it so bad. From that day on I saved my munny. Rain had promised to teach me to fight when I could afford it.  
I left the shop and ran as fast as I could to the second district. As soon as the large wooden door closed behind me heartless appeared. I began to hit them with as much force as I had. I felt proud when the four shadows were gone. I had never fought a heartless before.  
I began to continue on my way to find my brother when more heartless appeared. This continued for a while. When I made it to the third district I walked to my house and went inside.  
Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith were all inside.  
"Hailyn," Aerith said in her soft voice.  
"Did you find him?" I asked tears springing to my eyes. The three looked away, at the walls, the ground, but not me. "Did you find Rain?"  
There was desperation in my tone. It was like one of those heartbreaking times in a movie that just made you feel so sympathetic.  
When I was greeted with more silence and avoidance I knew he was gone. IT hit me so suddenly that my legs gave out and I collapsed.  
"Hail," Yuffie said. The three rushed over to me.  
I jerked away from all of them and ran out of the house. As soon as I was out I looked over the balcony. All I could do was cry. Then I heard a sound behind me. I whirled around and saw a large shadow heartless.  
I had never seen one like it before. The odd thing was it wasn't attacking me. It seemed sad.  
"Oh my god," I said, "Rain?"  
The shadow nodded and walked a little closer. It didn't seem to have the intention of hurting me. I let Rain creep closer and closer. When he was a couple feet away he lunged at me. The look in his eyes had changed from a look of love and regret to one of hate and wanting.  
I screamed as I hit my brother with my staff. "Rain stop," I begged pulling away.  
Leon and Yuffie exited my house and instantly began attacking my brother.  
His eyes changed back to love and regret but changed again a second later. He was trying to fight his heartless instinct.  
"Wait that's Rain," I said as I got to my feet.  
"Don't be stupid Hail," Leon said taking a final swing at my brother.  
After that he was gone in a cloud of black smoke, a heart rose into the sky.  
"You idiots that was Rain!" I shouted lunging at Leon.  
"Hailyn even if it was your brother he was a heartless," Yuffie said pulling me away.  
"We saw him on top of you," Leon said, "He could've taken your heart."  
"No he was fighting his instinct," I said crying and screaming.  
"Hailie he was gone. There was nothing we could do," Yuffie said hugging me.  
Part of me died that day. My brother had kept me alive for eight years. Never once did he treat me like a burden. He taught me how to stay alive. No matter what Rain was good to me. He was the best person ever. He was the key master of Traverse Town.

--  
Rexa13: That would be the prologue of this story. Don't worry the next chapter will be longer, and more with the actual Kingdom Hearts storyline.


	2. The New Kid

Rexa13: Enter Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Yes we're at the point where the game really gets started. ^-^  
Disclaimer: I only own Hailyn and the late Rain.

--

Usually I don't remember my dreams. When I do they're odd things that don't even go together. Naturally I think nothing of it, they're just unconscious thoughts after all.  
This dream though, it was so real and vivid. Everything went together. It seemed as though some boy that was dark throughout the whole dream, was trying to save his friends while his world was being destroyed by darkness.  
I awoke from the dream in a cold sweat. I tossed off my blankets and shook my mid back length silvery blonde hair. It would naturally flip outwards after a good shaking. I rubbed my green eyes and stood up.  
I lazily walked to my bureau and opened a drawer. I pulled out a black tank top, shiny silver short shorts, black knee high socks, gray shoes, tons of black rubbery bracelets, and a silver bow.  
I grabbed my staff that was propped against the wall and headed to the door. Before I left I looked at the picture that I had on the table. It was one taken shortly after Rain and I came to Traverse Town. It was right before my fifth birthday when we found the camera.  
"Bye Rain," I said smiling softly at the picture. "I'll see you when I get home."  
I left my house and looked around as heartless appeared. With several swings of my staff I was able to defeat them. Heartless were becoming easier and easier to destroy.  
I made my way from my newer home in the hotel to the first district. It was a much shorter walk than it was from my old home, which was now boxes and dirty, not very well taken care of.  
When I entered the first district I was face to face with Leon and Yuffie. Today Leon was holding a kid over his shoulder.  
"Uhm," I said questioningly raising an eyebrow.  
"He's new," Yuffie said smiling.  
I didn't ask about why these two had a guy with them. Instead I just went with them back to the hotel.  
It took a while for the kid to wake up. In that time Yuffie and I played go fish while Leon stood against the door that led to the Red Room.  
"Have a nine?" I asked looking over my cards at the ninja.  
"Go fish," she said.  
I sighed and drew a card. "Hah I got what I wanted," I said holding the black nine of clubs to Yuffie.  
"I think the kid is waking up," Leon said.  
Yuffie got up and walked over to him. She started talking to him while I cleaned up our cards.  
"Hey lazy bum, wake up," she said.  
"Nn," the boy groaned. There was a rustle of sheets as he sat up.  
"You okay?" Yuffie asked.  
"Yeah I guess so," he said. His voice was one of someone young.  
"The creatures that attacked you were after the keyblade," Yuffie said.  
"What?" I asked surprised. I dropped the cards that I had gathered. They scattered on the floor and table. I whirled around.  
I hadn't taken the time to even really look at the new boy. To me he was just another new face to get used to. To me that didn't seem very exciting. The only reason I was interested now was because Yuffie had said keyblade.  
I gasped. He looked just like Rain. The only differences were he looked a little younger and Rain had better style.  
"Shush," Yuffie said to me. Then she returned her attention to the boy.  
"It's your heart that they want. Because you wield the keyblade," Yuffie said.  
I looked at Leon. Right by him was the key, the exact same key that Rain had used for years. I looked back at Yuffie and the boy. I became angry that someone other than my brother had the key.  
"I'm so glad you're okay Kairi," the boy said fondly.  
"Kairi?" Yuffie said surprised at the boy. "I'm the great ninja Yuffie."  
"Great in whose book?" I asked jokingly rolling my eyes.  
"Shush Hailie you know it's true," Yuffie said. "I think you might've overdone it Leon."  
"The keyblade," the boy said looking at the key by Leon.  
"We had to get it away from you. It's how the creatures were tracking you," Yuffie said.  
"That and you have a heart with darkness," I said.  
"Hail," Leon said.  
"Well you know it's true.  
"What?" The boy asked looking at the three of us in turn.  
"Taking the key was the only way to protect you from them," Leon said.  
"Uh-huh," I said sarcastically rolling my eyes.  
"Still it's hard to believe that it chose someone like you," Leon said.  
"It's because he's like Rain," I said crossing my arms.  
"I doubt that's the reason," Yuffie said.  
"It has to be," I said. "I can't think of another reason that the key would choose someone like him."  
"I guess beggars can't be choosers," Leon said walking closer to the boy.  
"Why don't you start making sense? What's going on here?" The boy asked.  
"You're the one that doesn't make sense. Who are you?" I asked.  
"I'm Sora," the boy said. "Now just give me some answers."  
"Well Sora," Yuffie said sitting on the bed, "I guess we do owe you, so an explanation should do."

"Heartless?" Sora asked.  
"The things that attacked you, remember?" Yuffie said.  
"Beings without hearts," Leon said.  
"As Hail mentioned earlier, the Heartless are attracted to the darkness in peoples hearts," Yuffie explained.  
"There is darkness in every heart," Leon said.  
"Have you heard a guy named Ansem?" I asked.  
"Uh no," Sora said.  
"He studied the heartless," I said.  
"So what about this key?" Sora asked.  
"The Heartless fear the keyblade," Leon said. "That's why they'll keep coming after you, no matter what."  
"I didn't ask for this," Sora said.  
"The keyblade chooses it's master," Yuffie said.  
"And it chose you," I said sighing.  
"How did all this happen?" Sora asked. "I remember being in my room... Wait what happened to my home? The island? Mom and dad? Riku and Kairi?!"  
"How should we know?" I asked.  
"Hey you should try opening the chest on the table," Yuffie said.  
"Test your skills," I said.  
We had found the chest a few weeks ago. No matter how hard we tried to open it, it didn't. We hadn't gotten anywhere, which was frustrating.  
Sora stood up and walked over to the chest. I watched skeptically as I he sighed and tapped the chest with the key. The lid went up. Sora took an elixir out of the chest.  
"He did it," Yuffie said smiling.  
"Yeah whatever," I said rolling my eyes. I got to my knees and started picking up the cards.  
So he opened a chest, big deal. That didn't mean he was going to be some amazing keymaster.  
"So uh what do I do now?" Sora asked.  
"Well it's going to be though out there. Are you ready for it?" Leon asked.  
"Yeah I'm ready," Sora said excitedly.  
"Okay," Leon said. "Yuffie, Hail we should go join Aerith. She should be with the visitors."  
"Wait Leon," Yuffie shouted jumping off the bed to her feet in a quick graceful movement.  
A soldier appeared in the middle of my room. Normally heartless didn't get in the hotel rooms. Sometimes they would be outside the rooms, I was guessing Sora was to blame for this one.  
"Yuffie, Hailyn go," Leon said.  
"I don't think so," I said.  
Yuffie ran out of the room. She didn't have her shuriken with her right now, leaving her defenseless against the heartless.  
I moved quickly and grabbed my long thin staff.  
"Okay you two let's go," Leon said as his gunblade came to his hand. With a long solid movement of his gunblade Leon smacked the soldier through the window of the room.  
"Yay for damage fees," I said sarcastically walking to the door and opening it. "Come on Sora."  
Sora followed me out the door onto the balcony. I jumped off like Leon and looked up at Sora. He looked a little hesitant.  
"Ugh just jump. The only thing that'll happen is your ankles will hurt a little," I said.  
Sora jumped down and joined Leon and I.  
"Guys don't bother with the little soldiers and shadows. Look for the leader," Leon said. Then he made his departure.  
More soldiers appeared and I started to attack faster than Sora. It was obvious he was still trying to get the hang of his key. His movement was slow and wasn't doing the best swings. It was obvious he was second rate (at best) and undeserving of his keyblade.  
We fought through five soldiers as we made our way through the alley.  
"Sora over here," I said reaching a chest.  
Sora walked the few feet to me and tapped the chest. He pulled out the potion.  
"So from those five heartless we've gotten enough munny to buy two potions," I said.  
"Well I fought some more heartless before I met up with Leon and Yuffie," Sora said.  
"That's good for a munny stock," I said. "But we can't chit chat all day. Let's go to the second district. I have a few potions, we'll be good. Then we make our way through to the third district. Heartless normally don't go to the first district so we shouldn't find the heartless leader there."  
"Uhm okay," Sora said.  
We went through the alley undisturbed and even got another potion. Then we went through the second district fighting heartless as we went along. Our munny stock kept piling up. By the time we made it to the third district we had 200 munny. We also had the task of finding the missing Dalmatian puppies.  
When we reached the third district Sora seemed tired. As more heartless appeared he seemed to get back into action. I guess that was one good quality about him.  
We walked down to the main part of the district. Then we heard screams above. I jumped back as two animals, a large dog, and a duck fell on top of Sora.  
It took a couple of seconds for the three to gather themselves. Then the two newcomers saw it.  
"The key," they said together.  
A loud rumble came from no where. The three got up and we all looked around. Walls grew from the floor blocking us from escape. We were trapped in a large square. On top of eack wall a soldier appeared. They jumped down and started to close in on us.  
We all got into action. There were four soldiers, one for each of us. This fight would be a piece of cake. Then when the soldiers were gone there was a loud sound above.  
Instead of animals falling from the sky large pieces of amour were falling. They crashed on the ground and then put themselves together.  
At first we aimed at the torso. There were a few good blows from each of us. Just attacking the torso didn't seem like a very good strategy though.  
"Hey I think it would be best if we each went for a hand or foot," I said.  
The three looked at me for a split second and nodded. I went for the right foot. It was an easy target and soon it got detached from the armour body. The foot stomped the ground trying to get me. It got me twice. The blows hurt but I was determined to win. So I hit it again with my staff. Then the foot kicked at me, getting me in the stomach. I felt on my butt with the wind knocked out of me.  
Then Sora came and hit the foot twice with his key. The exploded into tons of health balls. I grabbed several and looked at Sora.  
"Thanks," I said panting a bit.  
"Couldn't let ya get killed," Sora said smiling.  
I pushed my body against him and we fell to the ground. I jumped up and hit the hand that would've gotten Sora. The hand exploded into more health balls.  
"There now we're even," I said winking at Sora, who had gotten back to his feet.  
The two animals weren't bad fighters. The duck was a mage who was good at his magic, though it was simple and he only knew one spell. The dog was a knight who knew how to use his shield for defense and a good weapon.  
Sora and I helped them get rid of the last foot. Then we had the torso. It was slightly dented from our hits a while back. It was still going to be harder to defeat. The four of us would have to watch out for each other as we hit the leader. We got to work. Sure we hit each other a few times, getting bad reactions, and a few sorries, but we beat the torso.  
The head of the suit of armour fell to the ground with a loud thud. The torso started to shake and then it exploded. This time it didn't leave out the little green health balls. A heart rose into the sky, like with every heartless that wasn't a shadow.

"You two were looking for me?" Sora asked.  
"Yep," the duck, Donald, and the dog, Goofy said together nodding.  
"They were also looking for the key," Leon said. He and Yuffie had rejoined us a moment ago. Now Yuffie had her two shuriken on her back.  
"Hey why don't you come with us?" Goofy asked. "We can travel other worlds on our vessel."  
"I wonder if I could find Riku and Kairi," Sora said looking down. His tone was sad and he kicked at a rock.  
"Of course," Donald said.  
"Sora, go with them," Leon said. "Especially if you want to find your friends."  
"Yeah," Sora said, "I guess."  
"You can't come looking like that. No frowning or sad faces," Donald said.  
"Yeah you have to look funny, like us," Goofy said smiling wide.  
Donald pushed Goofy away a smile on his own face. "Only happy faces."  
"Happy?" Sora said questioningly in his depressed tone.  
We all waited tensely, our eyes on Sora. Then he looked up with an ear to ear smile and his eyes looking up. He held the smile up for a few seconds waiting for a response. After the smile fell everyone burst into laughter.  
"That's one funny face," Goofy said.  
"Ok I'll go with you guys," Sora said.  
I looked down. So the new kid was getting out great. "Bye then," I said angrily.  
"Hailie," Yuffie said.  
"Uh wait," Sora said, "can Hailyn come too? She's helpful, and she had a good strategy for the suit of armour."  
"Uh," Goofy said looking at Donald.  
"No," Donald said. Then he looked at me.  
I looked up a little at him then down at the ground again.  
"Ugh fine," Donald said.  
"Really?" I said excitedly.  
"Yeah," Donald said.  
Then Goofy put a hand out and Donald did the same. It took Sora and I a second to realize what was going on. We each put a hand in the pile.  
"All for one and one for all," Goofy said.

The four of us stood by the world exit with Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith. We said goodbyes. They told us to be prepared and gave us some munny. Then the three of them went.  
"Okay you two should both know two things," Donald said. "First off the spell fire," he said handing us a sheet of paper. After we both held it we could feel the knowledge running through us, but it wasn't until we read it that we knew had to use this new found knowledge.  
"Next is dodge roll," Donald said taking his fire paper back and handing us a new one. This one was easy, it was a simple roll.  
"Now let's go," I said. I was excited to leave. All I could remember was Traverse Town. I was ready for a new place.  
"Okay," Sora said.  
We walked to the exit and opened the door.

--

Rexa13: Onto Wonderland. Okay so I know I said I had this whole series already written, I lied. The day I put up the prologue was the day I finished this chapter. Please review and tell me what you think.


	3. Wonderland

Rexa13: Chapter two is here. Please R&R.

Disclaimer: I only own Hail and Rain.

The Gummi Ship was simple to say the least. The orange and yellow made it easy to see and it was small.

Because of Cid I had learned a little about Gummi ships, okay I only knew what was simple and what wasn't.

"So how are we going to fit in this thing?" I asked looking at the ship, which only had three seats.

"Someone is going to have to sit on the floor," Donald said annoyed with me already.

"I'm sure we can manage," Goofy said with a little 'Hyuk' sound after.

"I want to drive," Sora said excitedly with a little twinkle in his eyes. He was so happy and in awe at the ship.

"NO way," Donald said. "I'm driving."

"But-" Sora started.

"We need to people to attack heartless ships," Goofy said.

"I'll do it," I said. "Sora you're the keymaster, destroying heartless ships should be easy for you."

"Yeah okay…" Sora said disappointed. Then his eyes lit up again and he got excited, "Hey if I get really good at shooting heartless ships can I drive?"

"Yeah sure," Donald said waving his wing/hand not really caring or listening to Sora.

"Yes," Sora said jumping into the ship.

I smiled a little; he was like Rain alright, excited and cheerful. "I guess we should get a move on then," I said following Sora.

"Right!" Donald shouted.

"No left," Sora said.

"I'm the driver I decide," Donald snapped.

"I'm the keyblade wielder, without me you wouldn't be going anywhere," Sora said.

"Uhm," I said looking at Goofy.

Donald thought for a moment. "Yes but you are already in the ship and you can't really leave."

"How about a vote?" I suggested.

"Now there's an idea," Goofy said.

"Everyone for the left," I said raising my own hand. Sora and Goofy did the same.

"Goofy," Donald said as though Goofy had betrayed him.

"Sorry Donald but Sora had a good argument," Goody said.

"Whatever," Donald said turning back to his driving.

"We never should have brought you," Donald said pointing to me.

"Hey we made it here, alive," I said.

"Barely," Donald said. "You are the worst shooter ever."  
"Well sorry I'm more of a close combat fighter," I said.

"Next time Goofy will shoot, he's better at it than some female," Donald said.

"Excuse me," I said appalled.

"Now Donald that wasn't very nice," Goofy said.

"Can we stop fighting and land?" Sora asked.

"Yeah listen to the keyblade master," I said glaring at the duck.

We were falling, at first we thought the hole wouldn't be so long. We did a pebble test, the pebble hit what we thought was the ground very quickly. When we all jumped in we thought we'd land on our feet quickly. At first the tunnel was dark, after a moment it got lighter. The walls turned into a dark purple colour pattern and it got lighter the farther we fell. Many objects fell with us, a piano, flower pots, random lights, etc.

After what seemed like an hour we hit the ground. Sora landed on his feet, hard, he let out an 'oomph' sound. Goofy fell on his bottom, Donald falling on his lap. Then I landed on my back.

"Ow," I said standing up clumsily.

"Oh my fur and whiskers, I'm late. I'm late. I'm late!" A white rabbit in a nice attire said to itself as it ran past us.

The rabbit seemed to come out of no where, we were in a little circular room where the only entrance seemed to be where we came from. All the items that we had seen falling with us weren't anywhere to be seen, leaving the room empty.

"Oh no, I'm here not there," the rabbit said panting, "The Queen will have my head… I'm late!"

The rabbit ran down a small hallway out of sight. His pants were still heard from the little circular room.

"I think something's going on here," Sora said.

"She'll have his head?" I said curiously.

We started to walk down the same hall as the white rabbit. All of us were quiet not really knowing what to talk about since we didn't really know each other. The sounds of our shoes against the ground echoed in the quiet.

We then reached a door. Sora opened it and once he did several more doors opened each one getting smaller.

Inside the next room we watched the rabbit go through a small door. One we definitely wouldn't be able to get through.

"How'd he get so small?" Sora asked kneeling by the door the rabbit went through.

"No, you're just too big," the doorknob said looking at us with drooping eyes.

Donald screamed and jumped back, "it just talked!"

"How cool," I mumbled. Sora nodded.

The doorknob yawned opening its keyhole mouth very large. "Can't you be quiet?" The door said irritated. "You woke me up…"

"Mornin'," Goofy said happily.

"Ugh night," the doorknob said, "I'm still tired."

"Wait we want to be small too," Sora said falling onto his hands and knees.

"What do we need to do to be small?" I asked.

"Try the bottle over there," the doorknob said before going back to sleep.

We turned around and saw a table and chair pop out from the ground.

"What is going on in this world?" I asked.

"I don't know, but it's pretty cool," Sora said.

"Yes but it's going to get weirder," I said letting a shiver run down my spine, "I can feel it."

"Whoa," Goofy said falling against the bed in the room.

Sora and I turned around at the thud and saw Goofy on the ground, but the bed was gone.

"What happened?" Sora asked.

"The bed went into the wall," Donald said dumbfounded.

"I knew it was going to get weirder," I said helping Goofy up.

"Come on guys we have to get small," Sora said grabbing a bottle and drinking a little. Sora started to shrink and continued until he was about the size of the bottle on the table.

I smirked as an image came to mind. It would be so easy to just squash someone that small. If it was done to Sora then the adventure would be over and I would have to go back to Traverse Town. Sure I didn't want to go back just yet, but I didn't want a new keymaster, especially on that gave Rain, or any keymaster, a bad name. I wasn't sure what I thought of Sora yet.

Little squeaks caught my attention. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were all small and fighting little heartless on the table.

"Here I go," I whispered grabbing the bottle and drinking a little. I began to shrink just as they did, it felt so weird shrinking. It was as if you were being squashed without it hurting.

"You should pay a little more attention," Donald said as he cast his fire spell on several red heartless.

"What's wrong Donald can't take care of yourself?" I asked smirking as I hit one of the floating heartless.

"Guys there will be plenty of time for arguin' later," Goofy said holding his shield in front of his face.

I rolled my eyes and hit a shadow against a chair leg. It turned into to dark smoke and disappeared.

Once the heartless were gone we ran through a little place that had been covered by the bed. Donald had started to protest about us not knowing what we could be getting ourselves into, but Sora was eager to see more of this strange world.

We were in a garden. The shrubs were a little over twice our height. There was a heart shaped spot that had been removed from one shrub. There were many card men standing all around. The white rabbit climbed up many stairs still panting, then he blew a trumpet and panted some more.

"Court is now in session," he said falling to his bottom from exhaustion.

"I'm on trial?" A young blonde girl asked looking at the rabbit. She sounded so shocked and innocent. "But why?"

"Her majesty the Queen of Hearts presiding," the rabbit said ignoring the young girl.

"It was this girl," a fat woman who was obviously the queen said. "She is the culprit, no doubt about it"

"What are you talking about?" The girl asked leaning forward.

"Don't you have anything to say in your defense?" The queen asked.

"Yes, I have done nothing wrong," the girl said crossing her arms. "You may be the queen, but that doesn't give you the right to be so… so mean," the girl said pointing at the queen.

"We should help her out," Sora said.

"No way we can't meddle in the affairs of other worlds," Donald said.

"I bet if it was you up there then you would want help," I said. I didn't really care too help, but I wanted to challenge Donald any way I could. Besides what could we do in a world if we couldn't meddle a little?

"Even Hail thinks we should help," Sora said gesturing to me. It was if he knew me when he said that I thought we should help.

"Yeah so let's go," I snapped walking forward.

"The court finds the defendant guilty of attempting to steal my heart," the queen said, "off with her head."

The guards, cards, surrounded the girl.

"Oh please no," the girl said looking around frightened.

"Hold it right there," Sora said.

"Yeah leave the kid alone," I said.

"How dare you interfere with my court," the queen snapped.

"Uhm excuse me," Sora said politely, "We think we know who really tried to steal your heart."

"Even though the heartless shouldn't even want it…" I mumbled.

"Uh huh it's the heartless," Goofy said smiling. Then Goofy realized that he had let on about the heartless and put his hands to his mouth.

"So she isn't the one you're looking for," Sora said.

"Seriously ya big bit-" I said.

"Where is your proof you little brats?" The queen asked snapping at us, her eyes glaring at me.

"Uhm…" Sora said.

Next thing you know they had the girl locked in a gold cage with a red curtain around it.

"Get evidence that Alice is innocent and I'll let her go," the queen said uninterested in us.

"Yeah sure you will," I said darkly.

"You should be polite with royalty," the queen said looking down at me.

"polite to such a crappy queen," I said raising an eyebrow, "I think I'd rather cut my fingers off."

"Why I should have your head for this," the queen said shocked.

"How sick," I said, "I suggest my fingers and you go as far as my head?"

"Well then you wouldn't be talking back," the queen said smiling as if she was proud of herself.

"I'm surprised they haven't taken your head," I said, "it's just so ugly and if it was gone no one would have to want to vomit at the sight of you."

"Hail I don't think you should be doing this," Sora whispered.

"Why you little," the queen said, "guards lock her up too."

"No way, I'm looking for the evidence that you wanted," I said drawing away from the guards.

"Well then let's go," Sora said grabbing my arm and pulling me into a forest by the court.

"As I said earlier we shouldn't have brought you," Donald said.

"Oh you want me to just stand there and listen to that bitch?" I asked. "I'm not going to sit there and listen to someone like that."

"Well it's the safest thing…" Sora said.

"That and it's the best way to keep your head," Goofy pointed out.

A cat head appeared out of nowhere startling all of us. It bounced around the air and landed on an enormous tree stump. It's pink and purple striped body landed on the head, it put one leg up and the arms out. Then the head went where it was supposed to be.

"Who are you?" Donald asked.

"Who me?" The cat asked. "Poor Alice about to lose her head, and she isn't guilty of a thing."

"So you know who the culprit is?" Sora asked.

"The Cheshire Cat knows all, but answers come with a toll," the cat said. "The culprit lies in darkness," the cat said before disappearing.

"Wait," Sora said.

"They've already left the forest," the cat's voice said. "But from which exit, I will not tell."

Listening to a talking cat was one thing, but standing around listening to a talking cat's disembodied voice was the weirdest thing I've ever done. Rain would have thought the experience was fun.

I looked at Sora; he was smiling as he looked where the cat had been standing. It was obvious that he was learning about where everything was and what he would have to do to help Alice.

"There are fours pieces of evidence in all. Three are easy to find, the fourth one is tricky," the cat said.

"How can we trust a cat that speaks in riddles?" I asked thinking logically.

"To trust, or not to trust," the cat said reappearing it's ear to ear grin looking eerie, he disappeared again.

"Four pieces of evidence, four of us," I said. "We split up and then meet back here," I said smiling. I would finally be able to get away from these guys and be alone in a different world.

"Wait Hail," Sora said as I walked away.

I walked down a path looking at the long grass. It kind of sucked being so small, if I was normal size I could have stepped on the queen, she could have been like a bug beneath my shoe.

I sighed and stopped at three mushrooms. I climbed onto the smallest one and looked up at the other two. Up on one of the larger mushrooms was a little pink box. I jumped onto the mushroom and sat down. I took the box into my lap, it was evidence.

"Isn't it nice out today," a familiar voice said that caused my heart to skip a beat.

I looked up and saw Rain sitting on the other large mushroom. He was smiling idiotically at me as he relaxed.

"Rain?" I asked looking at my brother.

"I wish we could've gone here together Hailie," Rain said.

"We are here together," I said jumping down to the small mushroom.

Rain stood up and walked to the other end of his mushroom. I threw the pink box onto his mushroom and jumped up there. Rain was gone; in his place was a silver necklace. I got to my knees and picked the necklace up and looked at it. It was a little silver locket with a thin chain.

"Dammit," I said tears filling up my eyes. I opened the locket, on one side there was a picture of Rain. "Where did you go?" I asked wiping the tears away as I put the locket on.

I sat there for a moment collecting myself. I had found what was no doubt evidence and I would need to present it to the queen.

With a sigh I jumped off of the mushroom. I was left with a little sting in my ankles, which I ignored.

"Hail," Goofy said.

"Huh," I said looking up. I was halfway back to where we met the Cheshire Cat.

"You found some evidence?" Goofy asked.

"Uh yeah," I said.

Donald walked up looking irritated. He was grumbling about how this world was horrible and how he wished the king was here.

"Where's Sora?" I asked.

"Over here!" Sora shouted.

I looked to where the sound was coming from, and there was Sora high up above us.

"Well it's going to take him a while to get here," I said, "what did you guys find?"

"Footprints," Goofy said hyuking.

"Smell," Donald said angrily.

"What about you Hail?" Goofy asked.

I opened my little pink box and looked inside. After a second or two I closed it scared that the evidence might run away.

"It's an antenna," I said.

"Hey guys," Sora said panting.

"What did you find Sora?" Goofy asked.

"Claw marks," Sora said in between pants.

"Well I guess it's time to present our evidence," I said unhappily.

Rexa13: I'll finish up Wonderland soon. I'm not sure how much I'll be updating. I would like to do it weekly, but my mom is afraid that I make the computer crash, which I don't do… Also that Rain Hail meeting was like one of the Sora Kairi things. It'll happen several more times through the course of the story.


	4. Where's Alice?

Rexa13: Hello dear readers. ^^ I'm happy I'm writing a chapter, gotta finish up Wonderland for all of you.

Disclaimer: All I own is dearest Hailyn -huggles-

Being back in the queen's courtyard made me feel annoyed. As soon as we stepped out of the Lotus Forest I felt disgust.

The queen looked about as happy that we were back as I did. She seemed to be keeping an eye on me, as well as her guards. I had to say this did make me smirk, the queen was watching out for me, maybe she did have a brain after all.

"You have your evidence?" The queen asked looking at us suspiciously.

"Yes," Sora said.

"Show it to me," the queen said.

We all placed our boxes before her and went to where Alice had been standing when we first arrived. The queen looked down at the boxes without satisfaction at the four boxes.

"While this seems like a good amount of evidence, I am unimpressed," the queen said.

"What?!" I screamed nearly shrieking. "We get exactly what you want and you say it is unimpressive…"

One of the cards hit his weapon on the ground and another box appeared by the ones we had found. The five boxes seemed to go in on each other and then they landed where they had been set.

"Pick one," the queen said in an amused manor. It seemed as though she had done something without having to move.

"After all the work we did to collect them?" Sora asked.

"Well checking all five would be a waste of time," the queen said bored. She looked at her nails instead of at as when she talked.

"Stupid fat lard doesn't deserve to be queen," I grumbled.

"Which one should I pick?" Sora asked.

"Well I don't know about you guys but I don't trust the fifth box that appeared. I think the queen did something that wouldn't benefit us," I said.

"Yeah but the evidence was mixed up," Goofy said.

"How do we know which one is good?" Donald asked.

"Maybe we should trust the key," I said sarcastically.

Sora left our stand and walked over to the boxes. He looked at them for a second before selecting the second to the last box on the left. He opened the box and out came a shadow. It disappeared a second later.

"What was that?" The queen asked repulsed.

"That was the evidence you wanted," I said smugly.

"Now let Alice go," Sora said.

The queen growled like an angry dog as she glared at us. It took a second before she finally said something which made me think that she was trying to make a plan against us.

"Article 29: Anyone who defies the queen is guilty," the queen snapped.

"We only did what you told us to do," I snapped back.

"Guards seize them," the queen shouted at her cards.

Our stand disappeared and in shrub grew at the exits. In the center of everything a little tower appeared. One guard covered Alice's cage with the red material and pulled it up. Then they all ran at us.

"Dammit," I said summoning my staff and hitting the closest guard to me.

"Destroy the tower," Sora said using his key to hit a card.

As Sora went to the tower and started hitting that I focused on attacking cards. Somebody had to protect the keymaster from getting hit while he tried to destroy the tower. Donald seemed to be doing the same thing as I was while Goofy hit the other side of the tower.

"Fire," I said trying magic for the first time.

A flame burst from the moon on my staff and hit a card's side. I used the spell again on another card as the first focused on putting out his flame.

"Get them you fools!" The queen shouted at the cards.

I continued to attack the cards as Sora and Goofy hit the tower. It wasn't long before the thing started to break; the queen probably hadn't focused on having it made very strong. Soon the tower had completely crumbled, which was good considering Donald and I were tired of fighting cards and weren't doing to well in the health and magic departments.

"What?" The queen said looking at our victory. She 'hmphed' and fell back in her seat with her arms folded looking sullen.

Then the cage that Alice had been in fell to the ground. Sora ran and the three of us walked to the cage. The material was moved and the cage was empty. Everyone's face revealed shock and surprise at the mysterious disappearance.

"She must've gotten kidnapped while we were fighting," Donald said.

"Fools!" The queen shouted slamming her fists on the spot before her. "Find her, find Alice!"

We went to the Lotus Forest in hopes of maybe finding Alice ourselves, or doing whatever it took to get this world settled. As soon as we entered a flower bud opened sending out a boulder that smashed against the ground.

The Cheshire cat appeared on the rock and grinned at us. He was on his front paws with his body in the air.

"Have you seen Alice?" Sora asked him.

"Alice no," the cat said. He was quiet for a second as high body started to disappear, "shadows yes."

The cat's body and head faded away after that. He was no help in any way at all yet I liked him.

"Well I guess we should find shadows," I said confused with the whole thing.

"Yeah but where?" Sora asked.

"Shadows are the most common heartless, Sora," I said rolling my eyes.

We started to go around fighting off heartless. Even when they were gone from the Lotus Forest we didn't get anywhere. So we started to broaden our horizons and went to a different area.

Sora led us to the bizarre room, which really matched its name. The first time we went there it was like a normal room with a little door with a talking doorknob. But from where we were it was upside down.

Heartless appeared here as well, mainly soldiers and a few large bodies. I wasn't really getting the whole thing with shadows. Sure we were fighting some but when the heartless were defeated nothing happened.

"Dammit what are we supposed to do?" I asked in a frustrated tone as I paced the ceiling of the bizarre room.

"Well the cat does talk in riddles," Goofy said.

"Well there was no riddle about shadows," I said.

"Maybe he didn't mean heartless," Sora said.

"That's ridiculous," Donald said. "What else could he have meant?"

"Well what about shadows that aren't heartless?" Goofy said.

"Wait I have an idea," Sora said. He jumped up from his sitting position and ran over to a makeshift light.

"Fire," he said lighting it up.

The room got lighter casting shadows in the areas it didn't reach. Then I realized what the cat had meant and internally kicked myself for not getting it. Sora walked over to the other light and lit it.

The Cheshire cat appeared at the first light. "The lights are on you'll see the shadows soon. They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else. The shadows may go after the doorknob too."

The cat disappeared leaving us with another riddle to solve. We looked at on another as we thought.

"So we need to be in this room…" Sora said.

"Maybe we need to go back to this room the way we got to it the first time," I said.

Once we were in the bizarre room the correct, not so bizarre way the cat appeared again.

"You'll have a better view from up here," he said before disappearing.

"If the heartless go after the doorknob then why go up there?" I asked.

"The cat hasn't been wrong before," Donald said.

I sighed as we again listened to a talking cat who spoke in riddles as he appeared and disappeared.

Once on the table the cat reappeared standing on its two hind legs. "The shadows are upon us. If you aren't prepared for the worst too bad," the cat said before disappearing yet again.

The room rumbled and a giant heartless fell from the ceiling. It landed on the table and did a flip to the ground. It then looked at us and started to move.

We started to attack the torso with our weapons. A few times we hit each other getting an upset reply from the person who was hit.

"Okay guys I think we're hitting each other more than the heartless," Sora said. "Donald Hail, you two are better with your magic. You two should get to higher ground and attack from there," Sora said.

"Bravo for the strategy," I said smiling at Sora.

"Thanks, now move," Sora said.

Donald ended up climbing on the table leaving me to go to a little end table that was in the corner.

As I shot fire at the heartless I watched for who needed help. Occasionally I would toss a needed potion or an ether and would get back to my magic attacks. I also noticed that Sora wasn't moving so clumsily with the keyblade. His strikes were getting better, more practiced. Sure he wasn't a great keymaster yet but he was starting to get there.

"Hail watch out," Goofy said.

"What?" I asked before getting knocked to the ground by the tricky heartless.

"You need to pay attention," Donald shouted.

I groaned and got to my feet. I began to hit the heartless' legs trying to see how it would feel falling down.

The heartless grew angry and began to focus its attention on me. As it aimed for me it became easier for Sora and Goofy to attack and Donald to do the job I had been doing.

Before we need it the heartless crumbled to the ground its stolen heart flying up. We were all tired as we caught our breath around where the heartless had been.

"What a racket," the doorknob said after a yawn. "How's a doorknob to get any sleep?" Then the door opened its mouth and yawned really big.

A little outline of light in the shape of a keyhole appeared. The light around the keyhole got brighter and rounder then stopped. Sora's keyblade lit up and jerked up, a beam of light shot from the blade into the keyhole.

"What was that?" Donald asked.

A little gummi fell from the door's mouth onto the floor. Sora picked it up and put it into his pocket. Then a small book fell from the door, I picked it up and read the title.

"The book is to learn the spell thunder," I said.

"Hah I already know that one," Donald said.

"Well we're about to be even," I said.

"I'm tired guys," Sora said.

"We should probably go back to Traverse Town and get some sleep," I said.

It was nice to be back in Traverse Town. It had been a very long day and the rest was much needed. But as I tried to sleep I found I couldn't.

While the others snored I made my way to the balcony. I sat on the ledge and looked at the many stars. There were so many stars and so many worlds. It would be impossible to visit them all, and if they were as dramatic as Wonderland, I wasn't sure I wanted to go to them.

Then my mind went to Rain, seeing him in Wonderland was so weird. What had he been doing there? How could he even be there if he was gone?

I looked at the locket that he had left for me. What did it mean, if it meant anything at all? Why did I have it? Was Rain really truly gone?

"Hailyn?" Sora said.

I jumped at and turned around. "What?" I asked.

"What are you doing up?" Sora asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," I said turning away. My voice softened, "I couldn't sleep."

Sora walked over to me as I continued to play with the locket.

"What's that?" He asked.

"Something I got in Wonderland," I said.

"I see," Sora said. He looked at the sky as I looked at the locket. It was quiet for a moment, the quiet felt nice, especially compared to the snoring in the room.

"Thank you," I said.

"Hm?" Sora asked.

"For getting me to be able to come along on the trip," I said.

"Well you're a good fighter and you are helpful," Sora said. "Tomorrow we're going to go to another world."

"Yeah we'll have a nice little adventure," I said smiling.

"I always dreamed of going to other worlds with my friends," Sora said looking at me.

"Rain always promised to take me to other worlds," I said smiling fondly at old memories.

"My friends and I were making a raft to sail to other islands," Sora said laughing. "Looking back at it now I know it wouldn't have worked."

"Yeah that's pretty silly," I said. "Rain was obsessed with finding gummi blocks. He was determined to build a small ship so we could go somewhere," I said.

"So your brother was a keymaster?" Sora asked.

"Yeah he was," I said. "He was great, heartless didn't stand a chance against him, he was powerful and easily took them out."

"Sounds like he was a pretty cool guy," Sora said.

"You remind me of him a lot," I said softly my eyes welling up with tears. "The way you look and act."

"Is that a bad thing?" Sora asked.

I stood up and walked to the door. "You might just make a great keymaster," I said looking over at Sora and smiling, "I think Rain would be proud."

I opened the door and walked into the room of snores. Rain would be proud that someone like him was the new keymaster. But I had to continue to make sure Sora went in the right direction and continued to get stronger. Maybe one day I would be proud of him too.

Rexa13: Tell me what you think so far, after all a little review can go a long way. You the reader are my muse and your reviews are motivation to keep writing. XD


	5. Deep Jungle

Rexa13: I'm sorry I didn't update last weekend. I was at a funeral and hanging out with family.

Disclaimer: Hail is mine.

After a long time in the gummi ship I was relieved to see a new world approach. We had left so early this morning that we hardly had time to do more than get up and get supplies.

The new world that was coming up quickly was covered in trees. I was hoping for something not so jungle like but we had a job to do with these keyholes.

"Hey Donald maybe the King is down there," Goofy said looking at his friend a hopeful look in his large eyes.

"In a backwater place like that?" Donald said looking at the jungle like he was disgusted with it. "The King would not go there Goofy. Let's just move on."

"Wait maybe Riku and Kairi are there," Sora said suddenly. It was one of the first times he spoke today; he seemed more tired than I was.

"We can look around," I said, "it's not going to hurt anyone if we do."

"We're on a mission we can't just go to every world we pass," Donald snapped.

"Come on," Sora asked almost pleadingly.

"No."

"Donald it might be fun," I said.

Donald folded his arms, closed his eyes, and looked away. It was obvious he wasn't going to give in but Sora looked determined. He jumped out of his seat and pressed the button we had seen Donald press to start the landing process. Sora then started to steer the ship.

While Sora messed around I found I might as well help. With a sigh I stood up and held Donald back. Donald didn't know what was going on at first but when he saw Sora he started screaming at us to stop what we were doing. Goofy just waited idly not really paying too much attention.

It turned out that Sora was not a good driver at all and he didn't know a thing about gummi ships. Soon after he started messing with the controls we ended up spiraling through the dark space and headed for a nice crash landing at the jungle which was now approaching faster than I liked.

I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for what would happen next. I felt like screaming like Donald and maybe even hitting Sora myself but I couldn't. Then I felt water all around me.

I opened my eyes and started to pull myself up as fast as I could. I started to choke and gasp for air as soon as my head broke the surface of the slightly murky water. The water was warm and the land above my head was warmer. Even though the water was a nice kind of warm land seemed more inviting, especially when you're coughing up lots of water.

I started to kick weakly to the closest chunk of land. My clothes were heavy and really helped with slowing down the process and helped with pulling me below the surface again.

I sighed when I finally caught my breath around a halfway point. My body was so tired and I had to keep moving. Then I noticed a pink body rising and falling out of the water. It was a hippo, something that I had only seen in books. A chill ran up my spine and I started to use as much energy as I could to get to land. To tell the truth hippo's really creep me out.

Finally I reached the soft mossy jungle floor. I smiled and closed my eyes as I lied on the ground. I was panting and it sure was hot, even through the canopy of trees. I tried to gain control of my breathing but it was difficult.

"Uhm excuse me miss," a male voice said making me jump out of my skin. I hadn't even heard him come close to me.

I opened my eyes and jumped up. The man was older and shorter than I was. He jumped back when I got up my staff in hand.

"I-I just saw you lying there and I was going to invite you back to my camp to rest," the man said his white mustache moving around as he spoke.

"Oh," I said relaxing my fighting stance. I thought about his offer for a second and thought it would be rude to oppose. "I think that would be quite nice actually." I had to get back with Sora and them anyways.

"You understand English," the man said brightening up.

"Uhm yes," I said.

"Well then that's wonderful. My name is Mr. Porter," the man said sticking out his hand. I took it and we shook for a second.

"I'm Hailyn," I said.

"Nice to meet you Hailyn," Mr. Porter said a smile showing from under his heavy mustache. "Now follow me and we shall go to my camp."

I followed Mr. Porter a very short way. It turned out his camp was right by the hippo's lagoon. His camp was in a large forest opening that captured so much heat. He had many artifacts and other things scattered around in a way that didn't seem organized.

I looked at the chemistry set with wonder. Why was this man here? I looked at his globe and then at his tons of boxes. Mr. Porter led me into his large yellow tent. Inside was a lot neater full of sleeping supplies and a young woman tending to some kind of camera looking thing.

"Jane this is Hailyn," Mr. Porter said walking over to the girl.

"Oh," Jane said turning from her camera and looking at me. "Oh!" She said looking at me. "How do you do?" She asked.

"I'm doing well," I said even though I was so tired. "How about you?"

"You understand," Jane said smiling and clapping her hands together.

What was up with these people? They weren't the only ones in the world to know English.

Just then the tent flap opened again. I turned to see who entered even though I didn't really care. A man walking on all fours entered. His level of modesty made me blush; all he had on was a brown loincloth. Behind with was Sora who looked totally calm with this guy.

"Jane," the man said in a deep voice.

"Hailyn," Sora said smiling.

"Tarzan," Jane said, "oh you have a friend as well. Next thing you know Clayton's going to have one."

"Hi there I'm Sora," Sora said introducing himself.

"Oh you speak English as well?" Jane said happily. "Are you here to study the gorillas?"

"Highly doubtful," another man said as he was entering the tent. This one was tall and he too spoke the English language. Behind the man was Donald and Goofy who looked rather shaken.

"Sora!" Goofy said excitedly, "Hailyn!"

"Goofy! Donald!" Sora greeted the same way. They grabbed each other's hands and then mine. Then they started to jump up and down like they hadn't seen each other in years.

When Sora realized he was holding onto Donald and vice versa they quickly pulled away and folded their arms. Now they understood my relationship with Donald.

"A circus of clowns," Clayton said. "Not much use for hunting gorillas…"

"Mr. Clayton we're studying the gorillas, not hunting them," Jane said emphasizing on the not. "This is research." Jane started to get heated then she relaxed and even smiled. "The more the merrier."

"Hey guys look what we found," Goofy said. His hands were around something he slowly began to open them. Soon you could see an orange gummi block.

"What is that?" Sora asked looking at the star covered block.

"It's a gummi block," I said. "You use it with a gummi ship and it can do different things, I'm pretty sure anyways."

"That means the kind mighta been here," Goofy said with a Hyuk.

"So this means what exactly?" Sora asked.

"We're going to work together for now," Donald said turning away and crossing his arms again.

"Excuse me," Jane said.

We looked over at her. She had a hand on her camera like device and she was biting on her lower lip. She removed her hang and crossed her tan arms.

"So I was wondering if you guys could do me a favor," Jane said not making eye contact.

"Sure," Sora said smiling kindly.

"Well you see Tarzan was raised by gorillas and he doesn't know too much English. It's hard to speak with him sometimes but he's learning," Jane said. "You're looking for your friends aren't you?"

"So he was speaking gorilla at the tree house," Sora mumbled. "He said Riku and Kairi were here."

"We have some slides scattered through camp, if you can get them we can show them to Tarzan and see if he understands any of it," Jane said.

I know Sora wanted to be nice and do this favor for Jane but what was the real point. This isn't the world I was hoping to be in and the idea of exploring seemed good in a place like this.

While everyone else talked to Jane I slipped out of the tent. Mr. Porter was doing something with the chemistry set and the obvious hunter was shining his gun.

I started to walk back to the hippo's lagoon. Even though I hated hippo's I knew what the area looked like a little. At least I knew about the water and the hippo's…

Once back in the lagoon I really took a look around. There were lots of places to search in the lagoon. There was a lot of land around the water; of course you had to jump up to get to certain places. There was a spot across the water that had a chest and something you could climb.

Then I looked at the land I was already on. The grass was very mossy and there were quite a few trees on either side of me. All the trees had moss on them except one which had vines that could be climbed.

That's when the air around me shifted from hot and humid to dangerous. I turned around and pulled out my staff in a single fluid motion and looked at the female monkey heartless. I didn't waste time in going at her but she just jumped back with me following her. Soon she had me at the exit of the lagoon back to the camp.

"Stay with your friends," a voice whispered in my ear. It was one of the scariest things I had ever encountered. I couldn't make sense of the whisper. I didn't know who it belonged to or why I had heard it.

I couldn't pause for long though and when I reentered the camp Sora, Donald, and Goofy had just walked out of the tent and were faced with six blue monkey heartless. I looked around and the brightly coloured female monkey heartless was no where in sight.

I watched as Sora fought a heartless. His movements were much quicker than they had been. He hadn't really developed much of a style yet so his movements were still sloppy and all over.

"Hail!" Goofy shouted.

I snapped out of my thoughts in time to notice the monkey on me. I grabbed his and threw him to the ground. I then smashed my staff into him like a person would do to a piñata.

The heartless were gone now and the guys were with me.

"Where'd you go?" Sora asked.

"The hippo's lagoon," I said pointing in the direction I had returned from.

"Why did you go there?" Goofy asked.

"I wanted to explore but something brought me back here," I said shrugging.

"Well let's go to the lagoon," Sora said smiling.

The lagoon seemed safer with everyone with me. I was with my "friends" this time so the voice I heard would leave me alone, hopefully. I let the guys look around for a moment while I knelt down and put my hand in the cool water.

"Okay so I think we should cross the lagoon," Sora said.

"But there are hippo's in there," I said a little too loudly getting strange looks from the three. "Well it's just I heard hippos are kind of mean is all…"

"Hailyn's scared of hippos," Donald started to sing mockingly.

I felt anger rise inside of me. "No I'm not," I said loudly.

I jumped onto the second ledge and looked at the hippo that was rising and sinking in the water. I took a deep breath and jumped into the water and swam on top of his back. I waited for him to raise more so I could successfully jump onto the next ledge. Once on the ledge I jumped onto another hippos back and onto the last bit of land.

While I waited for the others to get there I sat down and shuddered. I never thought I'd do that and since I had done that I was slightly freaking out. I didn't allow myself to look directly at the hippos and instead watched each male one by one cross to where I was.

When Sora joined me he opened the chest that was next to us. Then he sat next to me as Donald caused Goofy to fall of a hippo and he had to go back to the beginning.

"So you're scared of hippos," Sora said casually.

"Didn't I just prove that I'm not scared?" I asked.

"Hey its fine I don't like them much either," Sora admitted looking away from me.

"Wow the keymaster afraid of hippos," I said teasingly.

"So why a staff?" Sora asked.

"There was nothing else there fore a little girl," I said, "I think anything would have worked as long as I got to fight with Rain."

"Did you?" Sora asked.

"No," I said as I drew my legs into me, wrapped my arms around them, and put my head on my knees. "I fought against a heartless Rain though."

"Oh I'm sorry," Sora said looking at the mossy ground.

"Phew we made it," Donald said as he and Goofy made it to the ledge.

"Well then let's move on," I said standing up wiping away any thoughts of my short conversation with Sora.

Sora stood up and took the lead in climbing part of a tree. When we all got to the top we were behind Tarzan who was looking at a group of gorillas. The largest gorilla was probably a male and the alpha looked so pissed that he could come and snap Tarzan in half. There was a female in the group that looked calm and hopeful that nothing would happen to Tarzan.

Tarzan started to speak in what we all assumed was gorilla, his tone was desperate and the look on his face a pleading one. The large male gorilla just looked at Tarzan and when Tarzan stopped speaking he left without saying anything.

"What a jerk," I said putting my hands on my hips as Tarzan sank down.

"He seems distracted," Goofy said.

"What do we do now?" I asked looking around this vine covered area. There were a lot of drops that we could fall down and there were a lot of vines to swing on.

"I guess we swing around and find out," Sora said.

"No wait I think we should climb this tree," I said after I had finished looking around at the very green scenery.

"Why that tree?" Donald asked skeptically.

"Because it feels promising," I said, "let's leave it at woman's intuition."

"Okay," Sora said unsure that it was the right idea.

"Look if it's not where we're supposed to go we can climb down and swing on vines," I said starting to get annoyed of their doubts. I turned and started to climb the tree.

"I think you took us the wrong way," Donald said as we climbed up to the tree house.

"Well I never said it was the right way," I sighed. I was starting to doubt my woman's intuition just like they were.

"Wait isn't that Clayton?" Goofy asked pointing to a figure in the not so far distance.

"Donald run up there and see," Sora said.

"What why me?" Donald asked screeching.

"Okay just run up there and scare him," Sora said.

"Why do I have to go?" Donald asked.

"Because your annoying shrieky voice can scare anyone.

Donald grumbled as he ran off. We followed him silently. When we got up to the wooden walkway that was built around the tree house we heard Donald's shriek which made us finish the way there at a run.

"What's the big idea?" Sora asked looking down at Clayton who we all surrounded.

Tarzan looked over at the large alpha gorilla and pleaded one word that was probably his name. When the gorilla walked away Tarzan sank down looking defeated yet again. There was also a smaller gorilla who looked terrified and slightly sympathetic she looked at us for a minute and followed the larger gorilla away.

"Wait no I wasn't trying to," Clayton started trying to cover up his almost attack, "a snake slithered by, I saved the poor gorilla's life."

"Bull," I said as we all glared at Clayton. Tarzan's glare was one that could terrify anyone it was kind of like the one the alpha gorilla had when we first got to the places with all the vines.

We took Clayton back to the campsite as quickly as possible. We couldn't let Clayton do something to actually harm a gorilla. The walk back was very long and the anger was intense you could feel it radiating off of us.

When we got back to camp and explained the story to Jane she was fuming. "You did what?" She shouted her eyes like daggers.

"I wasn't aiming at the gorilla," Clayton said trying unsuccessfully to defend himself.

"You are not aloud to go near the gorillas again," Jane said angrily.

"All because of one mishap?" Clayton asked. Clayton's eyes grew large as he noticed we were all glaring at him. He started to back away to the exit of the tent you could see he was starting to shake.

After he was gone we all tried to relax, if he couldn't go around the gorillas there was nothing to worry about. A few seconds later we heard a gunshot that startled us all.

Rexa13: Well here you go. I'll try getting another chapter up over the weekend to make up for skipping a week. Please review.


	6. Gummi Galore

Rexa13: Well I wasn't going to do this today out of pure laziness but I got in the mood to write.

Disclaimer: -Pokes Hail- Mine.

When we left the tent all seemed fine for a second. Then we noticed a gorilla surrounded by heartless. She looked scared of the little monkey heartless that were jumping up and down around her.

We ran towards the heartless and did what we had been doing with them. I must say if you fight heartless for a few years it gets pretty repetitive and boring yet there was still some thrill in saving hearts.

When the heartless were defeated the female gorilla looked at us and gave a slight smile. She had a look of appreciation in her gentle eyes as she handed us something to help our gummi ship. It was strange how this world was full of gummi material.

We then went off to a bamboo thicket that was connected to the campsite (which seemed to be the center of everything). In the thicket more blue monkey heartless came and attacked. After they were defeated and the hearts had floated away another gorilla came and gave us something for the gummi ship.

At the cliff we saved another gorilla that again rewarded us. It seemed that no gorilla was safe anymore. Now they not only had to worry about Clayton but heartless who could find and attack a lot easier than Clayton could.

We again headed off to the hippo's lagoon where there was no having to save a gorilla. We crossed the hippos and climbed up the tree to the vines again. We climbed up the moss to the climbing trees where there were no doubt more gorillas that needed help.

After helping the gorilla at the climbing trees we helped one at the tree house. It was obvious there were a lot of gorillas in such an area and it was good that there weren't too many gorillas being pursued by heartless.

We went back to the campsite hoping we had done all we needed to help the gorillas. It was calm when we got back to the site but inside the tent Jane's worry radiated through the air.

"What's wrong?" Sora asked.

"I just hope Mr. Clayton is okay," she said biting her lower lip in worry.

"I don't," I said truthfully. "He tried to destroy gorilla's that did nothing to him. He's a jerk."

The four looked at me with shocked faces. I guess they didn't wish bad things upon people even if that person was awful. I just smiled at the four knowing they understood my point of view even if they didn't really like it.

"We'll go look for him," Goofy said politely to Jane who returned the smile.

The first place we checked was the bamboo thicket. On a large rock in the middle of the thicket there was a pipe that Clayton had been smoking. We all gathered around and looked at it for a moment.

A large jaguar jumped from the bamboo and started to attack. As we started to fight I realized how this fight was different than fighting heartless. This was like us fighting any animal even if we have the excuse that it came at us first. Even so I didn't feel much higher than Clayton.

When the cat fell over assumed dead I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. We had done that to a living creature at least heartless weren't able to live like everyone else.

"Hail your staff," Sora said.

"What?" I asked looking at my staff. It was missing the moon that had been on the top. "What the hell?"

"Can it still work?" Sora asked.

"Well I doubt it can do magic now," I said, "Help me find the moon."

I started to look at the ground closely I had used magic against the jaguar so I knew the moon could be far.

"Over here," Donald said.

I turned as fast as I could and saw Donald holding up the moon. I ran over to him and took it right out of his hands.

"What are you going to do with it now?" Sora asked.

"I don't know," I said, "I think I'm going to have to buy a new staff at Traverse Town."

"Well we're going to have to do more fighting while we're here," Donald said.

"I can use my staff as a weapon," I said, "I've only known magic for two days."

"I think the moon really makes your staff," Sora said.

"It really does," I sighed, "but it's not going to be around much longer."

"We really need to go on," Goofy said. "Let's go back to the tent and see if Clayton came back."

We went back to the tent which was empty. Tarzan seemed really upset and said she was near the tree house. None of us knew how Tarzan could know but we went anyways. We went on our way to get to the tree house but when we got to the climbing trees we found her.

"Tarzan!" Jane called out scared.

"Look at the black fruit," Sora said.

"Okay you focus on the fruit we'll take care of the heartless," I said.

With the plan ready the keymaster went after the fruit and us others attacked the heartless. I could still use magic but it was weak. My fire was a small flame and my thunder was one thin lightning bolt. As for physical attacks those seemed to be stronger, it was like stabbing them with a thin pole instead of hitting them with a moon.

When Sora was done with the fruit all the heartless disappeared and Jane and her little gorilla friend were freed from their make shift vine cage. We went over to the shaken Jane and shaken gorilla.

"I-I remember Clayton came to the tent… And that's it," Jane said looking up and down not really making eye contact.

"Clayton?" Sora asked.

"Gorillas being trapped is bad thing," Tarzan said, "Terk re-."

"We've got to protect the gorillas," Sora said looking at our little group of four.

We replied with nods that seemed to fuel Sora's energy.

"I think we should start from the beginning," I said, "you know from the campsite and go through everything."

"I agree with Hail," Goofy said.

"Okay," Sora said leading us back to the camp.

As we walked there I was quiet ignoring the conversation going on between the guys. Their conversation was one exactly like mine but I didn't want to hear it from them when I could think it myself.

It was a total shock that Clayton did something like that, at least to me it was. When we had met Clayton in the tent just a few hours ago I thought he seemed to cowardly to actually do something. Now that he had started to do something I was appalled that he would. Why didn't Clayton just get the younger gorilla on the spot and not worry about Jane? For some reason it seemed like a low down thing Clayton would do. He wouldn't care about anyone but himself and his gun, why care about Jane's feelings about gorillas?

We got to the campsite and fought off some heartless there same with the bamboo thicket. Once we finished fighting those heartless we realized that we needed a personal stock of potions and ethers. When we were supplied we were ready for anything.

We went to the cliff and saw Clayton again pointing his gun at a gorilla. This was the calm gentle female that had been with the alpha male before.

"No!" Sora shouted at Clayton as he went to shoot.

Clayton stopped and looked at Sora. Clayton appeared to be so zombie like, it was as though he was a puppet who couldn't pull his own strings. The look in his eyes seemed to be of uncaring and bored with everything. Even though Clayton appeared like a zombie we had stopped him for a third time now.

"Clayton," Sora said pleadingly as the female gorilla walked away with the alpha male who looked so much more deadly now.

"Not Clayton," Tarzan said. He talked like a gorilla for a few seconds, "Not Clayton."

Several heartless appeared and Clayton jumped away from us. The heartless attacked in their usual way and Clayton started shooting at us. We tried focusing on Clayton in this fight, it was easier to get him close range and when he was ganged up on and couldn't jump back.

After a moment the gunman stood back and stopped aiming his gun at us. The cliff wall behind him exploded throwing dirt and dust everywhere on the cliff side. The strangest thing was we couldn't see what knocked it down, if it was in fact knocked down by anything.

Tarzan ran forward to attack Clayton. As he charged he quickly hit something invisible and flew back a foot or two. The thing he ran into made a soft squealing sound. We looked at Tarzan then back at Clayton who was now riding on the invisible enemy.

We had no choice but to fight, which is exactly what we did. We hit the invisible enemy and Clayton for a moment and then the enemy became visible. Clayton was on a giant horned lizard that was in fact very ugly but very cool looking.

Now that we could see our lizard enemy the fight was easier. With this lizard now visible everyone put more focus on the lizard and less attention was on Clayton. I jumped onto the lizard's back and hit Clayton. He looked at me with his dull eyes and smacked me with his gun, pretty hard I might add. I flew back, off of the lizard and against a ledge.

Everything was black for a moment. I remembered there was a battle going on and I had to get up and help but I couldn't my body it felt like lead.

While I waited to get up images flashed in my head. There was a girl with short red hair hugging Sora. There was a flash of light around him and when it was gone Sora's arms were around the girl. I felt a twinge of jealousy that I would deny I ever felt if the time came. Then I saw a silver haired boy looking at us with hatred and anger. He had a sword that he was ready to attack us with and he took the chance he got.

"Hailyn," Donald said.

My body instantly felt lighter and the images in my head faded. I got up and looked around, the fight was still going and everyone seemed tired out.

"Thanks," I said dryly as I looked at Donald with cold eyes.

"Don't mention it," Donald said returning to his spell casting.

I stood up quickly ignoring the slight head rush and ran at the lizard shooting a small flame at it.

"Of freaking course," I mumbled before I sighed.

We attacked the duo waiting for something to happen. At one point Clayton fell off the giant lizard which gave us time to split up and attack both. I continued to fight the cool looking lizard with Donald. The lizard didn't seem to care too much for Clayton, every time Clayton tried to get back on its back the lizard would allow itself to be hit numerous times. Finally Sora and Goofy knocked Clayton out after a few nice hard hits. Then all we had was the lizard which was easy enough to defeat with the four of us.

Clayton got up and staggered back one hand holding his gun the other clutching his chest. There was a flicker behind Clayton the time between each disappearance decreased and the lizard fell on top of Clayton, who did scream in reply.

There was a bright light over the chameleon when its heart came out of its chest. The heart was large and it floated into the air as fast as other hearts did. I watched it float as it left little hints of colour. The chameleon then was consumed with bright light and disappeared as well.

I closed my eyes and felt this rush as some light inside of me shined. I felt so refreshed and I wanted to share that refreshment.

_Cure,_ a little voice told me.

When I opened my eyes we were surrounded by gorillas. The large angry alpha male walked to us followed by his gentle looking mate. The male stopped in front of Sora and put a hand on him. At first I didn't know what to think would happen and Sora was thrown over the male's shoulder. Sora yelled as he was thrown and then the male took turns throwing the rest of us.

It was scary flying through the air not knowing where you're going to land or what's going to happen to you. I landed with a thud on hard rock covered in a thin layer of soft moss.

Tarzan climbed up the small cliff and looked down at the gorillas. I wish we had the privilege of climbing but no we had to be thrown. Tarzan looked at us and pointed.

We turned and looked in the direction he was pointing in, there was a large beautiful waterfall coming from rocks. The water looked so pure and clean that you just wanted to touch it or drink it or play in it or hell even bathe in it.

"Tarzan home," Tarzan said.

We entered a cave that led to the inside of Tarzan's home. It was even more beautiful in here. The waterfall was like a loud wall that kept things a lot cooler. The rock gleamed and there were small puddles of pure looking water. Moss outlined quite a bit and looked good with the shimmering blue rocks.

Tarzan led us up rocks stopping so Sora could open a few chests. It hard work climbing up slippery rocks but we were managing. We climbed up and over on moss and vines which made things easier as long as you had a nice firm grip on it.

After a long while we made it to a different "room" of the cave. By this time I was slightly huffing and hoping we wouldn't have to climb anymore of anything.. Some of me was thankful that the alpha male didn't make us climb up the moss to the cliff top.

In the new room there was a light blue light just glowing and bringing in the smallest amount of light from its glow. Sora and Tarzan walked over to it like you saw random glowing lights everyday. The three of us side kicks stood back and waited.

Jane and her young gorilla friend walked forward to Tarzan and Sora. How did they get here? I swear if that little gorilla didn't throw Jane…

Tarzan spoke the word in gorilla that he had before while he looked at Jane.

"This is your home," Sora said, "but that means…"

Tarzan lifted his body and put an arm up. He didn't seem to be paying any attention to Sora.

"The waterfalls are echoing all the way here," Jane said softly in her British accent.

Tarzan repeated the word in gorilla. "Friends there. See friends," Tarzan said.

"Oh now I've got it," Jane said proudly. She imitated the gorilla word, "It means heart, friends in our hearts."  
"Heart," Tarzan said trying the word out in English.

"Oh," Sora said in a depressed manner.

"Friends, same heart," Tarzan said, "Clayton, lose heart. No heart no see friends."

"I'm sorry about some of what I said," Sora said.

"I'm sorry too," Donald said.

The sorries didn't include me which was fine because I wasn't sorry for what I said.

"All for one and one for all," Goofy said happily hyuking as he pulled the two into a hug.

The glowing blue light was butterflies and a few of them were flying away. Sora walked to them and looked at the light. A butterfly landed on me its wings no longer needing to lightly flap. It crawled up to the top of my hair and didn't move. Many of the rest of the butterflies flew around the room lighting some of it up.

Where the butterflies were there was a keyhole. It was a pretty sight, the keyhole against the blue rock with moss outlining it, and a couple butterflies perched here and there. Sora locked the keyhole making the scene lose some of its beauty.

A little block fell to the floor and we all knew it was for the gummi ship. Sora picked it up then turned to face me. As soon as his body was in my direction a light glowed around each of my hands. I closed them into fists and felt hard metal. The light grew and then it was gone.

In my hands were two shining double sided tritons. The one in my left was white with a tint of blue and it was cold like ice. The triton in my right hand was blue with a dark gray tint and it wasn't as cold in fact it was rather comforting to hold.

"Wow," Donald said.

"How did you get those?" Sora asked.

My little butterfly friend flew off of my head and up out a hole in the ceiling of the cave. I knew it then that Rain had again blessed me with a gift.

"The butterfly was just delivering," I said looking at the ceiling for a second. When my eyes fell back to my companions I saw their weird looks.

The young gorilla leaned herself on Donald a little and looked into his eyes. She seemed a little shy with him but she was being bold.

"Looks like someone has a new admirer," Jane said from the background.

Donald jumped back and waved his hands around. "No, no, no, no, Daisy would kill me," Donald said as we laughed at him.

-x-x-

When everyone was asleep I went to the balcony again. I had my staff and moon with me and I looked at it. Sure my new tritons were great in fact they were amazing especially since they were from Rain, but my staff had been with me through some long difficult times.

"Cure," I said using the magic for the first time. To my dismay nothing happened.

"Out here again?" Sora asked.

I looked at him for a few seconds, he had been asleep and now he was rubbing his eyes and stifling a yawn.

"Yeah," I said turning back, "hey Sora what are your friends like?"

Sora walked over to me. "Well Kairi," the redhead came to my mind's eye, "is really nice and kind of playful. She's sweet and fun to talk with."

Wow I didn't even know her and I felt she was better than me.

"Then there's Riku," the silver haired boy, "he's sort of my rival. Anything I can do Riku does better but he's still a lot of fun to hang out with. I've known them since I was small."

"I see," I said looking to the ground where a shadow was creeping along. "Well I can't wait to meet them. When we find them you have to introduce me, kay?"

"Sure thing," Sora said smiling brightly, "your new tritons are awesome by the way."

"Yeah," I said, "your upgraded keyblade is pretty cool too," I said thinking about when Sora changed the keychain hanging from the blade in the gummi ship. The new weapons had become a new hot topic.

"We better get some sleep," Sora said, "who knows how long it will take to get through the next world."

"Yeah you're right," I said watching Sora go inside.

I followed him after a second trying to sort out these new feelings budding inside of my heart.

Rexa13: I hope you see what I did there with the Hailyn's spiffy new double sided tritons. If you don't I'll hint it out, cold and white-blue, and dark and "gloomy" blue with dark gray. Please review.


	7. Coliseum

Rexa13: Late update I know I know. I'm sorry valued reader.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts and it would probably be horrible if I did.

-x-x-x-x-

Starting your day going to a new world isn't all bad. Sure you have to get up early and deal with groggy and sometimes grumpy people. Then you have to fly in a small ship to a world that you don't know anything about. Even though this is only the third morning I've gone to a world with these people I wish it was my last. They never seem to have good mornings and fights start over nothing.

This morning was more silent and calm. Donald and I gave off bad more annoyed vibes while Sora and Goofy were happy and excited for the new world we would encounter today.

When we arrived at the Coliseum however we were all a little disappointed. There wasn't much of a world here, just the ancient Roman or Greek battle arena and a lot of sand. It didn't help that the sun was beating down on us causing us to sweat quickly.

"Can we leave now?" I asked after standing in the sand for a few seconds.

"No," Donald said walking ahead of me, "We have to find the King."

I sighed there wasn't really anything we could do here but I walked on. Sand was an absolute hassle to walk on. If it's nice and hard and compact its fine but if not your feet start to sink a little.

My gray shoes now sported a mixed colour of gray and tan which really didn't look good. I wasn't looking forward to washing my shoes tonight when I would be tired and ready for bed.

After we crossed the sand to the battle arena's entrance they stopped to open chests. It was grueling staying out in the heat especially since the shade wasn't really cooler.

Finally they entered the arena's entrance which was surprisingly much cooler. It seemed that they were in ancient times but the indoors was still so much cooler than outdoors. I leaned against a wall and relaxed as I looked around the entrance.

Everything was made of stone which wasn't surprising for old architecture everything was also more of a tan colour. There were no lights since light bulbs weren't invented here yet. Two torches kept things well lit. Then there was a little goat like creature adjusting something.

"Um," Sora said walking up to the little creature.

"Good timing," it said not even looking away from its work. "Give me a hand will ya? Move that pedestal over there for me. I gotta spruce this place up for the games."

We all looked at the pedestal and at Sora. The pedestal looked to be hundreds of pounds of rock. Sora walked up to it though and tried pushing. I having nothing better to do walked over and tried helping him. All of our efforts proved fruitless since the pedestal didn't budge.

"It's too heavy," Sora said walking back over to the goat after a moment.

"What!" The goat cried in disbelief, "Too heavy? Since when have you been such a little-"

The goat looked at us finally and stopped speaking his last sentence. He looked shocked to see us four standing there instead of someone else.

"Oh," the goat said in embarrassment, "wrong guy. What're you doing here? This here is the world famous coliseum heroes only."

The goat juped down from a pedestal he was standing on and began walking towards Donald angrily. Donald walked back as the goat kept talking.

"I've got my hands full preparing for the games. So run along pipsqueaks," the goat finished.

I looked down at the goat in annoyance. In a way he seemed like that bitchy queen in Wonderland. This guy was going to get it if he kept acting like this.

As we glared at the goat he sighed. "Look it's like this," he began," heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the coliseum."

"You got heroes standing right in front of you," Donald said. For once I felt proud of something Donald said.

"Yeah you little jerk we're doing more than you ever could," I threw in my two-cents as I crossed my arms.

The goat started to laugh as he looked at us. He rested his hands on his knees and tried calming himself.

"He's a real hero," Goofy said putting his hands on Sora's shoulders when the goat quieted down some, "Chosen by the keyblade."

"We're heroes too," Donald said pointing a feathered finger at himself.

The goat started to roar with uncontrollable laughter again. He wiped a tear of laughter from his eye and again tried to gain his composure. "Hero that guy? Then her a girl?"

"Excuse me," I shouted glaring at the goat.

"What's so funny?" Sora asked angrily, "I've fought a bunch of monsters."

"Hey if you can't even move this," the goat started as he began to push against the pedestal, "you can't call yourself…" the pedestal didn't budge even though the goat was trying so hard, "…a hero." After a little more pushing the goat fell on his butt panting.

"At least we didn't fall on our asses," I said looking away from the goat.

"Okay so it takes more brawn. Let's see what you can do," the goat said resting a hand against his stomach.

I put my arms down and looked at the goat. A smile lit up Sora's face as he realized victory.

"Finally," I said.

"Oh yeah except you," the goat said looking me up and down. "Sorry girlie but females don't really make heroes."

"What the hell do you think I am?" I asked in a snappish manner. "Some kind of helpless damsel in distress?"

"That's what girls normally are," the goat said crossing his arms.

"Well I've been traveling with these guys and have been fighting for years,' I said looking down on the goat.

"Look here that's how the rules go," the goat said.

"Well I'm going to prove your rules wrong, "I said darkly.

The goat groaned. "Okay, okay as long as you shut your mouth," the goat put a hand to his head, "givin' me a headache."

Sora was the first one up. He was faced with tons of barrels that he broke with ease. He was skilled with his keyblade now. I wouldn't say he ws a master but he seemed to have the hang of it by now.

Next was my turn. I was used to a staff coming to my hands and I had completely forgotten about getting these two new weapons. I hadn't used the tritons at all yet and wasn't sure I could prove myself to the goat.

"Help me out Rain will ya?" I asked in a whisper as soon as I looked at the barrels I was faced with.

"Okay go," the goat said.

I took no time as I began to strike the barrels with the foreign tritons. I wasn't prepared for them but barrel breaking wasn't too hard. I learned not to strike one barrel with both tritons because that didn't work at all.

It was a little better having double sided weapons and magical abilities. Spell casting still felt like my thing but I found myself using more physical attacks. It was nice hitting a barrel with one side of the triton and while it went off in the air I could hit it with the other.

While it seemed like Rain really was helping me with this I found myself out of time with three barrels left. I knew it was because I had never used these tritons before but the goat seemed to think otherwise.

"I told you that you couldn't do this," he said looking as though he had wasted his time.

"It's because at first I didn't know what I was doing with these weapons they're new," I said pointing one at the goat.

He stepped back, "Well there it is you should have practiced. Years of fighting my foot."

Rage boiled inside me as I stared down at the goat. Right as I opened my mouth to yell at him he turned to Sora.

"You ain't half bad kid," he said.

Sora put his arms behind his head and chuckled. "I'm headed for the games."

"Afraid not," the goat said. For some reason this gave me a little satisfaction.

"What why not?" Sora asked, "I broke every one of my barrels."

"Hey don't be an ass," I said to the pouting boy that was supposed to be my friend.

No one seemed to be listening to me so I left the little entrance to the front. The coliseum gates seemed to be calling me. Outside of them was the gummi ship that had cooling and comfortable seats.

"What a little jerk that Phil is huh?" A man's voice said.

I looked around to see the ugliest person ever. He was blue with blue fire for hair. He looked old and decrepit with a black robe on.

"Yeah… he is," I said hesitantly not having a good feeling about this guy.

"Well it seems he won't even let your friends in the games even though they are guys who can break barrels," the blue guy said.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Hades," the blue guy said, "I've got something that can help you.."

"Yeah what would that be?" I asked.

Hades opened an old ugly hand and a black choker with a silver loop coming out of the front appeared in his hand.

"This is a necklace of dark power," Hades said walking towards me, "With it you can have great strength and can destroy enemies easily."

"Dark power?" I said looking at the cute little choker. His words repeated themselves in my head. "What do you want in return?"

"What think I'm just here to be a jerk like Phil? I'm trying to be a good Samaritan to a strong girl," Hades said smiling at me.

"I'm not so sure," I said.

"Come one it'll be fine," he said, "I'll even give you a ticket to the games so you can fight."

"You have to give my group tickets," I said.

Hades stuck out his hand, "Deal."

We shook hands and the necklace was around my neck and the tickets were in my hand.

-x-x-x-x-

Rexa13: Sorry if this was too short. I promise I'm going to update on Tuesday though.


	8. The Games

Rexa13: Whoo hoo! I am back from vacation and finally have time to write. I'm going to be moving so I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing tons of updating, I don know that I am going to try very hard to update as much as possible.

Disclaimer: I only own that little Hailyn.

-x-x-x-x-

New power seemed to grow inside of me already. I felt like Phil should be taught a lesson for being so rude. Images came into my head of me attacking him with two double sided tritons, even though this seemed highly amusing I knew I needed to kick butt in the preliminaries of this place so I could show Phil what girls could be made of.

Hades was gone in a puff of black smoke after I got the needed items. Looks like someone didn't want to stay. I got this bad feeling in the back of my mind, but I shrugged it off.

"Hey Hailyn, looks like we have to go," Sora said gloomily.

"Says who," I said holding up four tickets a smirk growing on my face.

"Whoa where did you get these?" Sora asked excitedly. The three guys moved closer to me to examine the tickets a little better.

"A good Samaritan," I said an image of the hideous Hades coming to mind.

"Well let's go play in the games," Donald said.

The guys started to walk back into the Coliseum talking excitedly. It kind of made me mad that they were so cheery, after all they did nothing to get tickets, I didn't either, but I was the one who was humiliated in front of all of them when Phil told me off because I didn't break a few barrels.

"Wait," I said stopping them in their tracks. Little puffs of sand faded away as they walked.

"What is it?" Goofy asked as they all turned around.

"Why should you guys get to play in the games?" I asked a little heated.

They all looked at me confused and in shock. It was obvious that they expected me to let them. They were who I was traveling with and they were my "friends".

"Hailyn," Sora said confused almost making my name sound like a question.

"Are you expecting me to be a good Samaritan too?" I asked looking at them with angry eyes. "You guys didn't really stick up for me when Phil told me off. No you guys were disappointed because you couldn't play in the games. Aren't we all supposed to be friends?"

"Uhm Hailyn," Sora said.

I looked past the three guys at the doors to the Coliseum where Hades now stood. He looked so dark and gloomy compared to the lighter exterior of the place. He didn't seem to fit in the scene but it seemed like he was supposed to be there.

Hades looked at me and started mouthing words. "Let them play," is what he seemed to say.

Hades disappeared after he gave me my directions. While I still felt a little resentment at the guys for treating me the way they did I knew I had gotten these tikets for them. I did want them to play in the games I mean I had gotten them tickets to play.

"Ugh sorry," I said dropping my head into my free hand. "Let's go play in the games."

When I looked up I met three pairs of eyes that held a lot of confusion and a little excitement. I think there might have been relief on their faces.

"Thanks Hail," Goofy said as we started walking inside to the slightly cooler entrance.

"Yeah," I said apathetically.

"Oh Phil," Donald squawked happily as we walked inside.

"Look what we got," Sora said.

The goat looked over at us and rolled his eyes. I held up four passes to play in the games and his eyes widened.

"How the heck did you get those?" He asked loudly.

"It was from a good Sa-"Goofy started to say.

"So can we play in the games now?" I asked fanning myself with the passes.

"Well… I guess so… We start with the preliminaries," the old goat said not really sure he wanted to let us play.

When we got to the battle arena we saw our first opponents. Four soldiers were in the back and three Blue Rhapsody's were in the front. This fight would be a cake walk; these heartless were hardly a threat.

As I had thought this fight was easy. Hades was right about this choker, it's power was great and it sure felt good being the strongest in the group even with my clumsiness with my new weapons.

Since there wasn't much to fight right now I took a good look at Sora's fighting ability. I don't know why I thought he was getting better. He was so clumsy and kind of awkward with the way he moved. Sure he wasn't entirely bad but I wouldn't quite say he was good. I regretted telling him that Rain would be proud.

After our first fight we stood with Phil for a moment. He seemed unimpressed by our defeat of the seven Heartless and I have to admit I wouldn't be impressed either.

"You guys aren't heroes yet," he said crossing his arms. He looked a little reluctant before he said, "You ain't doing bad though."

Of course we aren't we're fighting easy Heartless. I felt like saying this aloud but something stopped me. It was a guy who was seriously good looking. He just looked at us as we looked at him.

"Something tells me he'll be a tough one to beat," Phil said.

Part of me knew this was true he looked so… so strong. He was tall and full of muscle. He wouldn't be an easy opponent. Another part of me really wanted to fight him. With this new power that I had I knew I could beat him, I mean it would be us against him.

The rest of the preliminaries were easy. It was just a multitude of different kinds of Heartless. Sure I was attacked a few times, scratched and hit by magic, but I had potions and elixirs, and an ether. Though I hadn't been relying on magic much now, physical attacks were much more fun now that I had fancy new weapons that I was learning to control.

Our final match was against the gorgeous guy, Cloud. The name didn't seem to fit, I mean clouds were puffs of air and water in the sky. Cloud seemed like such a weak name. Then again it could throw people off and he could show he wasn't a weakling, not that he looked like one or anything.

I cracked my knuckles and summoned my tritons one last time. I was kind of tired from all the fighting I had been doing but this hadn't been as much work as the other worlds. All the power rushing through me would help me win this fight.

It started out fine. There were four of us and one of him which gave us an advantage to get in more attacks. After a couple minutes I noticed that my body was losing the power it had gained. The dark power was leaving me. Or was it adrenaline that caused me to think I was more powerful than I actually was? Dammit Hades would get a talking to if I saw him again.

After a couple more minutes my body felt totally drained of energy and Cloud seemed even stronger. He became faster and his strikes more powerful. With his long sword it wasn't too easy to get close to him for a physical attack. I went back to usin magic since it was easier to hit him with it.

My body was starting to feel really heavy. All my limbs were starting to feel like lead. What happened to my power? Why was Cloud getting stronger? What the hell had Hades done?

"Cure," I said healing myself using the last of my magic. I had to stay conscious, no repeats of Deep Jungle. I wouldn't faint again my team needed me.

I looked around Donald and Goofy were knocked out. Sora seemed really tired. I tossed him a potion which gave a momentary lapse for me. I was hit by Cloud's sword in the shoulder. I looked at the large rather deep cut. Blood started to run down my arm as I felt the pain of where the sword had been.

I collapsed trying to keep conscious as I watched Sora hit Cloud when the two got close. They jumped back and headed at each other once more. This time Cloud got Sora much like he got me, but Sora was hit below the elbow.

I was happy that this battle was on an arena and not of the sand. It would be flying everywhere getting into cuts and getting us infected. Since I couldn't get up and I started to count cuts and bruises on my body. I look totally beaten all thanks to this fight. Before I had a few scratches and a small cut or four but now my body was covered in thin scratches and small cuts. The gash on my shoulder was the worst though. I could still feel the pain and the blood soaking my arm was too much.

I heard a groan and looked up. Sora had fallen to his hands and knees. I didn't blame him this guy was too strong. Sora and I both watched as Cloud raised his sword above his head.

Sora looked just as tired and beat up as I did. His eyes were wide and panicked now that there was a sword over his tired body. As Cloud began to swing down I started to sweat, there was no way I could lose another key master. Then Cloud lowered his sword to his side slowly.

Relief flooded through me and it was obvious Sora felt the same way as I did. Well maybe he was more relieved because he was the one sho could potentially lose his life.

Cloud turned to walk away when a crash rang through the stadium. There was a giant three headed dog that seemed to crush Cloud. The dogs six red eyes looked around at everyone. The red eyes examined our tired bodies. The scent of blood and sweat was all I could smell which meant the same for the dog. This could be a real problem.

I looked over and saw Hades. He didn't look surprised that this giant problem of drool and fur was here. He turned to walk away. I growled lowly the sound drowned out by the dog's louder growls.

My triton's disappeared at my will and I ripped off the new choker. It was back around my neck as soon as it was off.

"What?" I mumbled standing up.

The dog growled loudly and I looked over at it. A very tall very buff man was there holding the dog up. He didn't seem to have any trouble holding the dog up. He looked over at Phil.

"Herc," Phil said excitedly.

"Get these guys out of here," the man shouted as he turned his attention back to the dog.

Phil ran at all of us telling us to get up and come on. I knew I should go with them but I had to go after Hades.

I started to rip at the choker as I stood up. I pulled on the silver loop and pulled it out. I threw the silver at the dog and it hit it in a paw.

"Hey girl come on," Phil said looking at me.

I felt some energy come back into my body. I wasn't as tired anymore but I still felt the pain of the gash.

"Sorry Phil but there's something I have to do," I said running to where I saw Hades go. Running wasn't the best idea. It tired me out quickly and somehow my determination got me to keep going.

I was in a hallway when I met up with Hades. He was standing around like he was waiting for someone or something.

"Hades," I shouted panting.

"Oh well if it isn't my new friend," he said looking over at me. "How'd you like participating in the games?"  
"You brought that dog into the fight didn't you?" I asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Hades said as though he was losing interest in what I had to say.

"What is that thing?" I asked.

"His name is Cerberus," Hades said casually.

"He should be back where he came from," I said darkly.

"Well he isn't and he'll be staying a while. How do you like that choker?"  
"This thing was great at first," I said. "What did you do to it? Why did I start to lose all of my energy?"  
"It's dark power kid, it won't last for someone trying to walk in the light. I see you broke it."

"It was the only way to get some amount of energy back."

"Well with that nasty gash looks like you need some medical help," Hades smiled cruelly, "In fact I know how it can be fixed. Tell you what-"

"I have no intentions of making anymore deals with you," I said.

"But you can have so much power," Hades said disappearing and reappearing behind me. He put a hand on my shoulder that wasn't injured and covered in blood.

"I can gain power," I said.

"Yes but this can help," Hades said. "You can even go on your way to save that brother of yours."

That caught my attention. Who was Hades?

"I can help Rain?" I asked. "How do you even know about him?"

"He was the one who had the keyblade for years," Hades said, "Of course I know about him."

"So if I can help him does that mean he isn't dead?" I asked hoping he wasn't.

I had seen his heartless. I should know he was gone by now, but I couldn't accept it, no Rain had to still be alive. One Heartless couldn't take my strong and amazing brother. Besides I got the locket and tritons from him, he had to be watching over me.

"No he isn't dead not fully anyways," Hades said.

"Not fully what do you mean?" I asked turning around and looking at the dark man.

"You'll find out," Hades said, "If you join the darkness."

"Join the darkness?" I asked.

"Yes just let it consume you," Hades mumbled.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

Letting the darkness consume me didn't seem like a good idea. Rain walked his path in the light from what I had seen. He always protected Traverse Town. He wanted the world to be a safe to live, especially for the two of us. Then when it was fine we were going to build a gummi ship and get out of Traverse Town. We were going to find the perfect place to call home and travel a few of the worlds.

"It's easy to understand," Hades said.

"How would darkness help me save my brother?" I asked.

"You can have more power and you can get farther, get what you need to save him."

"I don't think being consumed by darkness isn't a good idea," I said looking down, "Rain wouldn't want me to be dark."

"Associating dark with evil are you?" Hades asked. "Well I can assure you that people with dark hearts can have very good intentions."

"I think I need to stay with Sora," I said shocking myself. I didn't even like Sora, I couldn't like Sora. "I need to make sure he does a good job."  
"Suit yourself," Hades said disappearing. "We'll be in touch."

"We'll?" I questioned. There was no reply. Hades didn't make sense. What did he want?

I stood there and thought about what just happened for a moment before I started to feel sick. I was losing way too much blood and I hadn't really done anything to fix myself.

"Damn," I said starting to feel my body harden.

"Hail," I heard a familiar voice of Sora.

I looked around and saw him walking towards me my vision was starting to get fuzzy and as I watched Sora I watched him change. There weren't major differences; he just looked taller and older. His clothing style changed to one of a big brother and he was Rain.

I smiled as the Rain Sora walked closer. "Are you okay?" He asked. I could barely hear him over a loud ringing in my ears.

I opened my mouth to reassure him that I was fine but no words came out. Everything was starting to go black. Then I felt something on my back. It was small and it seemed to be scratching at me.

"Dammit," Sora/Rain said, "Hailyn."

-x-

"Is she okay?"

"I don't know she lost so much blood."

"How could this happen?"

"She shouldn't have gone with you guys. You are amateurs with fighting."

"Three different worlds and this happens."

I groaned as I listened to everyone. I felt stiff and my shoulder was sore beyond belief.

"Hey she's waking up," Aerith said.

Wait Aerith? We were at the Coliseum last I checked. I remembered being there. We were fighting, there was Hades, he was so weird with his offer. Then there was Sora and Rain was there. No Rain wasn't there, that was my mind playing tricks on me. I lost so much blood. Wait what was that thing that was on my back?

I opened my eyes slowly. It seemed too light in here even though I knew this room well and I knew that it wasn't nearly too bright.

"Give her some room," Cid said, "She needs to breathe."

My eyes adjusted to the light and I could see everything. I tried sitting up causing my arm to hurt more. I gasped in pain and felt strong arms help me sit up.

"Thanks," I mumbled looking at Leon who nodded in reply.

I looked around the room and saw everyone there. It was like the discovery of Sora all over again, except everyone was here.

"How do you feel?" Sora asked sitting down beside me.

"Like crap," I said. My throat was really scratchy.

I looked at him disappointed that he wasn't Rain still. He was Sora, the same Sora I had know for a few days. He had a bandage on his arm, that's where he got his gash from Cloud.

"Hey you should get away from her," Yuffie said crossing her arms.

"What?" I asked looking.

I noticed that my Traverse Town family looked displeased at Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Did they blame them for what happened to me?

"We've told you for three days, we did what we could on the way back here," Donald said.

"Yeah we tried to heal her but she lost so much blood," Donald said.

"You three said she was attacked by a heartless," Leon said. "She could have lost her heart."

"I was attacked by a Heartless?" I asked surprised.

"A shadow jumped on your back and almost got your heart. We started to see it leave your body," Sora said.

"We all attacked it though," Donald said, "It's gone."

"You guys are lucky she's alive," Yuffie said.

"Guys pleases," Aerith said, "Let's not shout and just calm down."

Thank god she said that, I was getting such a headache from them talking so loudly.

"Okay how long have I been out?" I asked.

"Three days," Cid said.

"What?" I asked.

"Yeah but we stayed in this world," Sora said.

"We called you four to help this world and you come back with Hail injured," Cid snapped.

"Wait what's happening to this world?" I asked scared. Traverse Town had been my home since I was small, nothing could happen to it.

"The Heartless are getting out of control," Yuffie said calmly. At least someone was taking Aerith's advice.

"I have to help," I said starting to climb out of bed.

"No," Leon said keeping me down. "You're down with this fighting thing."

"What? No way I want this, Rain wanted this," I said. "We were going to travel worlds together. I was bound to get hurt, I was being stupid."

"We can't lose you like we lost your brother," Leon said.

"Yeah he was our only hope and we lost him," Yuffie said sadly. "Now we only have him. He doesn't know what he's doing. You should stay here until he's stronger."

"No way," I said. "I have an idea, if Sora, Goofy, Donald, and I can fix Traverse Town you guys have to let me keep traveling with them."

"What no way," Yuffie said. "We can't lose you too."

"You won't," I said, "Consider this a test."

"Fine we have a deal," Cid said sticking out his hand.

"Cid," Yuffie said.

I stuck out my hand and shook it. Yuffie didn't look too happy that the deal was made. Leon and Aerith had an understanding with Cid. It was a slightly logical idea. Of course Yuffie would disagree though, she and Rain had a bit of a history.

"Come on you guys lets show them what we got," I said.

"Yeah," Sora said.

"All for one and one for all," Goofy hyucked.

"Let's get the Heartless," Donald said.

"Tomorrow," Leon said. "We all need to get some rest."

-x-x-x-x-

Rexa13: Tell me what you think. I'm going to update next chance I get. Oh and yes I'm starting to develop my own little plot in the story.


	9. Traverse Town

Rexa13: I'm back. :D For now anyways… Sorry I've been busy and lazy but I'm more than ready to write. Sorry for some OOCness last chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

x-x-x-x

Today could have two possible outcomes. One, we could do well and prove to my family that we were capable of traveling and being safe. Option two was, we could totally screw up and be left with me having to sneak around to go to other worlds. Option one was obviously the better of the two and the one the gang and I hoped for.

Even though I had hardly spent time with the people I was traveling with there was something about them that I enjoyed. I don't really care for their very happy, optimistic, glass is half full, personality, but I did like traveling with them. Sora wasn't a very skilled fighter but he was persistent, he was going to master using the keyblade even if that could take a while. Goofy was sweet and really seemed to care for everyone. Then Donald was a pain in my ass. I don't think I can say much nice things about him.

"Mornin' Hailyn," Goofy said when I walked into the hotel's private kitchen.

"Hey," I grumbled groggily as I rubbed an eye furiously.

"How'd you sleep?" Goofy asked placing a stack of pancakes and a plate full of scrambled eggs on the table.

Ugh Goofy made breakfasts. It's not like there the worst thing to eat, in fact Rain was a worse cook, but Goofy was nothing to brag about.

"Good enough," I said before yawning.

"We have a big day ahead of us," Sora said excitedly as he attacked his food, looks like this guy would eat anything.

"Yeah we do," Goofy said.

I rolled my eyes. How could they sound so stupid? Of course today is a big day; everyday of saving worlds is a big one.

"State the obvious," I mumbled pouring a large amount of syrup on my pancakes. The taste of sugar really seemed to help with blocking out the taste of Goofy made pancakes.

"What?" Sora asked looking at me.

"Quit hogging the syrup," Donald said.

"Shut up," I snapped pouring more syrup just to make the duck even angrier.

"Hey," Donald snapped back. Looks like he and I were both grumps in the morning, even though he was always a grump.

I looked down at my food which was starting to turn into syrup soup so I put the syrup on the table away from Donald. Then I started to eat my food cautiously while the others ate more quickly. It did take Donald a moment before he got the syrup which was funny especially considering there wasn't much syrup left to use.

-x-

"So where is the keyhole or what do we do?' Sora asked the Traverse Town gang.

"We don't know," Leon said.

"Rain was the last keywielder before you came here, remember?" I said looking away from everyone.

"Well yeah but did he ever find the keyhole?" Sora asked looking from me (I could feel his curious eyes) to everyone else.

I lightly kicked a small rock as I tried to remember my brother ever talking about finding a keyhole or being around when he found the keyhole. I was drawing a blank as I gazed at the rock that was only a couple feet away. I could continue to kick it if I went over to it and it did seem tempting. The only reason I was even interested in finding the Keyhole in Traverse Town was because I wanted to keep traveling the worlds.

Sitting here thinking about completing a mission that Rain hadn't was really depressing. I mean he did so much to try to protect this world and to protect little me. If I had been there to help him that day would he have gone?

Then while I had this on my mind I had what Hades was talking about stuck in there. He said something about them coming to see me or something like that. Who were they and what did they want from me? Did they want me because of Rain or was there something special about me? I had so many questions involving the subject and no answers. It was so aggravating not knowing a thing.

"Hail," Sora said poking me. His voice sounded faint even though he was practically right by me.

"What?" I said pulling myself from my thoughts after another harder poke.

"You okay?" Goofy asked looking concerned even though he still had his dopey grin.

"I'm fine," I said a little defensively, "I was just thinking…"

Of course I sounded defensive that would happen. Now I definitely had all eyes on me. Everyone was watching waiting for an reason for me to leave the conversation that was obviously important.

"Did Rain ever tell you about a keyhole?" Leon asked.

"I don't think he would have told anyone," I said softly keeping my gaze away from everyone. I couldn't make any eye contact.

"That wasn't like Rain though," Yuffie said, "He wasn't the kind that could keep secrets.

That was very true. Rain had to tell everyone everything. One of my birthdays he got me a small wooden shield to practice fighting with. By the time I opened the present everyone (including myself) knew what the gift was. I asked Rain everyday for two weeks what he got me. He told me the day he got a gift for me and I just had to know.

"So I guess he never found one," Cid said.

I looked up at the older man. When did he get here? He was always busy working the shop that he didn't always come have chats with us. Well Cid wasn't really committed to the accessory shop; he was a gummi ship guy.

"Maybe he did," Aerith said. She looked deep in thought as she pondered the idea.

We all looked at the quiet brunette waiting for an explanation her idea. After a moment of silence Aerith looked up at us and was startled by all of our stares.

"What?" Aerith asked.

"What do you mean maybe he did?" I asked with a sigh.

"Oh well Rain liked to have us follow clues to certain places," Aerith said.

"Oh yeah," Yuffie said with a gasp, "He always used to do that to me."

"Did you guys go see Merlin yet?" Leon asked.

"Yeah we did when Hailyn was unconscious," Sora said.

"Wait what?" I asked. "Who is that?"

"Oh while you were out we had to do something. We went to this little place in the third district where we met this magician named Merlin. We also met a Fairy God Mother who helped me learn how to summon," Sora said this speaking quicker than normal. He took a deep breath and then resumed, "Then I went to this world called 100 Acre Woods. It was in a book at Merlin's little house."

"Oh okay then…" I said. "What does Merlin have to do with anything?"

"Maybe there is a clue with him," Leon said.

"Could be," Goofy said.

"Let's go find out," Donald said.

"Be careful," Aerith said with caution.

With that the four of us left the first district and headed off to the third. The second district used to be full of Shadows and Soldiers and now elemental heartless and Large Bodies seemed to be the two main heartless. It was strange that no matter how much we were hit with fire, lightning, and snow we didn't get full effects. We never caught fire, or were electrocuted badly (it was more of a stun and sting kind of thing), or froze. Large Bodies were quite the annoyance considering they took so long to defeat and we didn't have all the time in the world to get to the keyhole.

By the time we reached the third district we were tired and now we had some airborne heartless to fight. These guys had a lot of speed and did a good amount of damage. I guess my level wasn't as high as the others or I hadn't regained a lot of energy because it didn't take much to knock me out right now.

"You okay?" Sora asked me as I struggled to get to my feet.

"I'm fine," I said forcing myself to stay up and to keep fighting. My body ached and my injured arm gave me a lot of pain. I still fought every Heartless that came at me even though I wasn't fighting very well.

"Heal," I mumbled to myself feeling more energy flood my body. It wouldn't last long but at least it would help me for now.

By the time we reached the little house that this Merlin guy lived in I had acquired several more bruises and cuts. I had a little bit of blood on me but not enough to be a problem.

"Hello there," an old man who I assumed was Merlin said looking at the guys. Then his eyes stopped on me, "Who is this?"  
"Hailyn," I said.

"So you're the Hailyn I've heard so much about," Merlin said smiling wide.

"Excuse me?" I asked confused. Did the guys sit here and gab about me.

"I used to know your brother; he talked about you quite a bit. When I met this one," Merlin pointed to Sora, "He reminded me so much of your brother that I called him Rain. I asked if he knew you and he said he was traveling with you."

"I see," I said.

"Do you know if Rain ever found the keyhole to this world?" Sora asked. To me Sora should have timed his questioning better but what could we do?

"Why no I don't think he ever found it," Merlin said.

"Oh hello children," an older looking woman said. I assumed she was the Fairy Godmother.

"Hello," we said.

"Who is this beautiful young lady?" The Godmother asked.

"Beautiful?" Donald asked looking at me.

"Hey shut up," I snapped. I had been surprised by receiving a compliment from the Fairy. I was never really called beautiful much before.

"My, my what a temper," the Godmother said.

I felt bad for snapping at Donald (for once) because I must have ruined my first impression with the Godmother. I sighed and looked down before remembering I hadn't introduced myself.

"I'm Hailyn," I said looking up at the Fairy Godmother.

"Oh the Hailyn?" She asked.

"Yes the one I've told you about," Merlin said looking at his roommate. The old man looked back at us and walked down to where we were. "Rain never found the keyhole as far as I know but he did come and ask me about it."

"And?" Donald asked.

"I couldn't answer his question. I have no idea where the keyhole is, only the wielder can find the location," Merlin said.

"So we have to leave everything up to Sora?" I asked.

"Come now I'm sure he can find it," the Godmother said.

"I don't know," I said. "Rain looked for years and never found it."

"Well then the key should know the way," Merlin said.

"Sounds like a hint to me," Goofy said.

"What?" Merlin asked.

"It's nothing," I said. "We're just trying to find the keyhole before this world gets swallowed up."

"Well you best be going," the Fairy said.

"Bye," we said before heading out.

When we got back into the third district three Soldiers appeared. We summoned our weapons and prepared for battle. Sora was in the lead and was making a move when the Soldiers disappeared and we watched as black smoke and hearts rose.

"Huh?" Sora asked as we all stood up normally.

"There you are. What's going on?" A silver haired boy holding what looked like a batwing sword asked.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed running the few feet to Riku and pulling on the boy's cheeks.

Riku knocked Sora's hands out of the way roughly and stepped back. "Hey cut it out."

"I'm not dreaming this time right?" Sora asked himself more than anyone else.

"I sure hope not it took forever to find you," Riku replied pushing some of his long silver hair back.

"Wait a second where's Kairi?" Sora asked.

There was her name again. I didn't know what is was about Kairi but I was jealous of her. I didn't want to even here her name. She was a very good friend of Sora and Riku's though so it was only a matter of time before her name came up.

Riku's eyes widened very large as he looked at Sora. "Isn't she with you?" Riku asked with hope in his voice.

Sora looked at the ground seeming depressed. "Well don't worry I'm sure she made it off of the island too," Riku said trying to convince himself more than Sora from what it sounded like. Riku walked past us and we all looked at him. "We're finally free. Hey maybe she's even looking for us now. We'll be together again soon. Leave it all to me, I know-"

A Shadow appeared as Riku was talking. Sora looked at it and summoned his Keyblade again. He slashed at the creature and it erupted in a cloud of black smoke. Riku seemed surprised as he turned around and looked at Sora.

"Leave it to who?" Sora asked smugly looking at Riku with a large smile. "I've been looking for you and Kairi too. I had their help the whole time though," Sora said gesturing to the three of us.

So Sora was finally acknowledging our existence with his old friend. I mean sure it was supposed to be a happy reunion but it was pretty rude that he ignored us this whole time. Riku also acted like the three of us didn't exist; it was as though we were part of the scenery of this district. I can't say I would act any different if we had met up with Rain even though he would quickly ask about the three guys I was traveling with.

"Who are they?" Riku asked with some hostility in his tone.

"Ahem," Donald said clearing his throat, "My name is-"

"We've visited many places and worlds looking for you two," Sora said cutting Donald off. It was like the three of us side kicks were nothing. I did giggle at Donald being cut off though, that was pretty funny. The duck didn't seem to like Sora's rudeness though.

"Wow I never would have guessed," Riku said closing his eyes for a few seconds.

Goory went behind Sora and stuck his arms up, "Oh and you'll never guess Sora is the keymaster."

"Who would have thought it," Donald said crossing his wings and looking away. That was probably the duck's revenge for being so rudely interrupted.

"Hey what is that supposed to mean?" Sora asked looking down at Donald.

"So this is called a keyblade?" Riku asked gaining our attention. The newcomer was holding Sora's key out for us to see. It was a confusing sight since we did not know how Riku ended up getting a hold of the Key.

"Huh?" Sora held up his empty hand and looked at it curiously. He looked back at Riku and lunged at him, "Give it back."

"Catch," Riku said taking another long look at the Keyblade.

"Okay so you're coming with us right?" Sora asked looking at Riku hopefully. "We have this awesome rocket wait until you see it."

While Sora blabbed about our travels Riku looked at us with anger in his eyes. He seemed jealous like he was replaced by us.

"No he can't come," Donald snapped.

"What?" Sora asked angrily.

"Forget it," Donald said.

"Oh come on he's a good friend of mine," Sora argued.

"Uhm guys," I said looking where Riku had been.

"I don't care," Donald quacked. "The last person you suggested we take has caused a few problems and takes up room."

"Hey," I shouted putting my hands on my hips. "I don't take up to much room."

"He's gone," Goofy said.

Sora jerked his head up and started looking around. "Riku?"

"I tried to tell you guys," I said folding my arms and shaking my head.

"Nice going," Sora said with a sigh. "Oh well… At least we know he's okay… And who knows maybe we'll run into Kairi soon too."

"Maybe we will," I mumbled darkly. Since I was a couple feet away from the others they didn't pay attention to me. Oh well I was talking more to myself anyways.

"We need to find the Keyhole guys," I said.

"Yeah," Sora said.

-x-x-x-x-

Rexa13: Sorry everyone. I wanted to get all of Traverse Town to get done in one chapter but I'm really tired and I have to get up early. We moved and now we're moving again and yeah sorry… Please review it should help me update a little faster.


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